November 13th, 2022, Clifton Mark, Bhavika Bansal
There are obvious upsides to frozen food. It can be stored longer and is often less expensive than fresh equivalents. Prepared frozen foods that can be heated and served are an easy one-step solution for dinner or entertaining. Despite this, consumers from all over the world continue to favour fresh over frozen food. Data from YouGov Global Profiles shows the proportion of global consumers who think that fresh food is better, and, despite this, who think that frozen food still provides better value for money.
More than three-fifths of global consumers say that fresh food is better than frozen. This tendency is strongest in the Americas where 78% of consumers favour fresh. The preference is least pronounced but still strong in MENA and Europe at 69%. The APAC region falls in the middle, registering 72% of respondents saying that fresh food is better than frozen.
Even if most people think that fresh food is better overall, many believe that frozen food may still be a good buy. Globally, 27% of consumers believe that frozen food offers better value for money than fresh food, even if 37% of consumers disagree with the idea. A significant proportion of consumers remain undecided with 36% saying they neither agree nor disagree with the statement.
Again, Europe and MENA evince more positive attitudes towards frozen foods, with 35% and 31% respectively saying that it offers better value for money than fresh food. Consumers in the Americas and APAC are the most likely to disagree with the statement with both at 38%.
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Methodology: YouGov Global Profiles is a globally consistent audience dataset with 1000+ questions across 48 markets. The data is based on continuously collected data from adults aged 16+ years in China and 18+ years in other markets. The sample sizes for YouGov Global Profiles will fluctuate over time, however the minimum sample size is always c.1000. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from India and UAE, which use urban representative samples, and China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam, which use online representative samples. Learn more about Global Profiles.
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