Research findings show that shoppers are more likely to consider cost, quality and healthiness over environmental factors when buying their food and groceries. But 53% of consumers said that they did consider at least one environmental issue when food shopping.

Commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, the research focuses on how sustainability issues impact on people’s food choices. The FSA Board is considering how sustainable development could be embedded into future policy making in a way that benefits consumers now and in the future.

Reseach participants were questioned in March this year on topics that included general attitudes to food, the factors influencing choices while shopping and whether they were willing to pay more for products produced in a sustainable way. Sustainability covered environmental, social and economic considerations.

The survey showed that only 10% of shoppers put environmental issues first when shopping. That compares to 66% of shoppers whose first concern was economic related (including food quality) and 23% concerned with social issues (including the healthiness of food).

The study found that participants had been influenced by issues commonly associated with environmental concerns at least once in the last two months when making purchases - for example, buying free range eggs or choosing a Fairtrade product. It showed that sustainability is clearly still a confusing concept for some people, with two fifths of those surveyed unable to explain what it meant. It also found that consumers have a wide range of views and differing priorities on sustainable food policy.