The George Institute for Global Health and the Nielsen market research company have announced a new partnership to explore how nutrition information on food packages influences consumer choices.

The first insights from The George and Nielsen collaboration are around sugar in food. Not surprisingly, they found sugar content of foods is increasingly of interest to Australians, who are looking more to low-sugar or no-sugar alternatives. Here is a summary of their findings.

• Nearly three-in-ten Australians are very concerned about sugar consumption.
• The most concerned are households with people aged 55 and older, and small households of singles or couples without children.
• Slightly more females (37%) are sugar conscious than males (33%).
• Concern about sugar is highest in major cities, especially Melbourne and Perth.
• Low-sugar products appeal to an older audience, whereas claims such as ‘organic’, ‘gluten free’ and ‘lactose free’ appeal to younger people.
• The shift toward low sugar products is present in both lower and higher socio-economic groups.

The search for low-sugar products is now mainstream.

A growing consumer preference for low sugar products has been identified in the following product categories:

• Savoury biscuits
• Dairy dips
• Sparkling juices
• Yoghurt
• Nutritious snacks (e.g. muesli bars)

Sales of carbonated soft drinks are declining, and healthier options are growing, for example kombucha (fermented tea drink).

Read more at the Nielsen website here.