Last updated on 7-8-2025 by Elise Grimm
Why do we study perceived determinants of food choice?
- Studying the food environment is useful to assess the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods, which is known to influence food choices and dietary intake.
- In a complementary way, it is relevant to use perception-based approaches to understand how people perceive and interact with their food environment.
- In addition, understanding the factors influencing food choices could aid policy-makers in designing better strategies to promote healthy food choices.
How do we do it?
- Participants of 18 years and above, including the parents of 3 to 9 year old children, were asked to assess the importance of different factors when they shop for food: taste, nutritional quality, price, practical aspects, weight control, ease of access, local production, organic label, and sustainable production. These aspects were rated on a three-point scale: ‘not important at all’, ‘important’, and ‘very important’.
- For the sake of interpretation, the categories ‘important’ and ‘very important’ were combined and the resulting category was the focus of the analyses described hereafter.
Key results
Taste, price, and nutritional quality are perceived as the most important aspects when shopping for food.
Almost half (48%) of the Belgian adult population perceives the organic label as an important factor when shopping for food.
More women than men perceive price, nutritional quality, local production, weight control, and organic label as important aspects when shopping for food.
The proportion of individuals perceiving nutritional quality, accessibility, local and sustainable production, and organic labels as important when doing food shopping increases when the level of education increases.
Perceived determinants of food choice
Proportion of the Belgian population aged 18 years and above (including the parents of 3 to 9 year old children) perceiving different factors as important when doing food shopping, globally and by sex, Belgium: 2022-2023
- Crude = results weighted for season, age, sex, and socioeconomic status.
- Weight control: the weight of the participant or that of other household members.
- Practical aspects: for instance, ready-to-eat products, easy to prepare.
- Almost the entire Belgian adult population (99%) perceives taste as important when shopping for food.
- A large part of the adult population considers price (87%), nutritional quality (84%), and accessibility (80%) as important during food shopping.
- The aspects the least often cited as important are the practical aspect (ready-to-eat products, easy to prepare, etc.) and the organic label (cited by respectively, 46% and 48% of the adult population).
- The biggest sex differences are observed for price (90% for women and 83% for men) and nutritional quality (88% for women and 80% for men): a higher proportion of women than men perceive these aspects as important when shopping for food.
Proportion of the Belgian population aged 18 years and above (including the parents of 3 to 9 year old children) perceiving different factors as important when shopping for food, by education level, Belgium: 2022-2023
- Crude = results weighted for season, age, sex and socioeconomic status.
- Weight control: the weight of the participant or that of other household members.
- Practical aspects: for instance, ready-to-eat products, easy to prepare.
- The education level is calculated at the household level by considering the highest diploma obtained by: (i) the respondents or their partner for adults (aged 18 years and above), or (ii) the father and mother (or carer, if applicable) for children and adolescents (aged 3 to 17 years). However, for simplicity, we refer to the education level of individuals rather than the education level of their households.
- Taste is seen as important, whatever the level of education. In addition, we do not observe a clear socioeconomic gradient regarding the price, accessibility, weight control, and practical aspects.
- By contrast, the proportions of adults perceiving nutritional quality, local production, sustainable production, and organic labels as important when shopping for food increases gradually when the education level increases.
Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Determinants of food choice: Perceived determinants of food choice, Food Consumption Survey 2022-2023, June 2024, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.sciensano.be/en/results-food-consumption-survey-2022-2023/determinants-food-choice/perceived-determinants-food-choice