GERMANY’S EATING HABITS

We of the Q·CAPITAL VENTURES Food Team are always interested in new eating habits. Such changes in consumer behaviour are often the impulse for new food innovations and where VC is needed. Out of this reason, the new BMEL-Ernährungsreport 2018 is very interesting for us.

The report was issued for the third time and gives insight in the German eating and shopping habits. 1,000 people over 14 years have been interviewed. The report shows clearly that the following trends are still ruling the food sector in Germany: health, taste, transparency, snacking, convenience and anti-waste. The most important facts of the report are shortly summarized according to the trend categories:

Health & Taste are the most important issues for the German consumers regarding grocery shopping and cooking.

Regionality & Transparency are the next important issues. For more consumers than last year (from 52 % to 67 %) clear declaration and information is essential (e. g. origin, ingredients, allergens, date of expiry).

Cooking at home & Snacking
The majority of the Germans (73 %) is still cooking at home and 43 % cook every day. 43 % are eating on-the-go and buy snacks.

Convenience in the city
The topic convenience is dominant in big cities. More than the half of the metropolitans say that quick and easy meal preparation is very important.

Anti-Waste
More citizens like to take on responsibility for food waste (86 % of the respondents).

We are already looking forward to the next year’s report to see which changes are occurring in the German eating and food patterns.