Growing your Business and Building Trust: Insights from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity’s Consumer Research

Growing your Business and Building Trust: Insights from the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity’s Consumer Research

By Ashley Bruner, Research Manager, Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI)

No matter where you fall on the supply chain, when it comes to long-term success in Canada’s agrifood sector, consumer perceptions matter. Without acceptance from the audiences you serve, growth opportunities are limited; the best technologies, leadership, and policies will all fall flat without consumer trust. More than ever, Canadian consumers are having conversations about what’s on their plate and how it gets there; joining these conversations is essential to building trust and fostering your ability to innovate, grow, and succeed.

The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity (CCFI) was created to help Canada’s food system better engage with Canadian consumers and earn their trust. CCFI’s annual national public opinion research sheds light on what the average consumer thinks and feels when it comes to the food they eat and how it’s produced.

Over the years, CCFI’s public trust research has uncovered several key themes that can not only help build public trust, but your business as well.

The Canadian consumer landscape is diverse but rooted in a nearly universal truth – the cost of food is a critical consumer concern. Over the past year, cost of living pressures has impacted us all, but the cost of food out-ranks all other pocketbook concerns. Nearly seven in ten Canadians say they are very worried about the cost of food (69%, up a significant eight points vs 2021).

Although most consumers (56%) understand the core issue of increasing supply chain costs as the main factor behind the rising cost of food, five in ten (20%) feel businesses wanting to increase their profits are to blame. This secondary factor is a business risk not to be underestimated. Above all else, demonstrating what you are doing to provide healthy, affordable food to Canadians will not only address a critical consumer concern, but continue to foster goodwill among Canadians.

The Cost of Food Is Increasing Because…

More than ever, consumers are open to hearing from animal agriculture stakeholders. After reaching a tracking-low in 2021, CCFI’s 2022 research found a significant improvement in public perceptions that Canadian meat, milk and eggs are derived from humanely treated animals, reaching a five-year tracking high. It is time to leverage this positive momentum to secure long-term public trust and personal success.

Canadians want to hear about the positive impact you have on the national job market, but context is key. CCFI’s 2021 research revealed that over half of Canadians (54%) said that learning about how many Canadians are employed in agriculture improved their perceptions of Canada’s food system. Complimentary focus groups, however, provides an important caveat – providing additional context is important. Consumers want more information on this impact to make it meaningful to them – how many people in your community are employed? What are the spin-off jobs? How does your impact differ from other sectors? Help consumers to fully understand the positive impact you are having on the local job market and economy.

When communicating with consumers, some messages matter more than others when it comes to building trust. Food safety, transparent information, and animal welfare are key areas that are most impactful on public trust. Improving public

perceptions on these areas are most strongly linked to improving public trust overall. More specifically, a one point increase in public confidence related to food safety will grow public trust by nearly half a point (0.42). Technical jargon aside, these results provide the food system with a ranked roadmap for effective trust-building consumer themes you should be clearly communicating about.

Public Trust Key Drivers

CCFI’s public trust research can help you benefit from improved overall perceptions towards animal agriculture. Address the rising cost of food, demonstrate your economic impact in a local, personalized way, and tap into the proven trust-building themes of food safety, transparent information, and the wellbeing of farm animals. Consumers and producers alike benefit when our food and agriculture system is trusted.

Interested in learning more?

Visit www.foodintegrity.ca to download the free CCFI Public Trust Research reports in (English & French).

Want tailored insights, reports, presentations and over five years of research findings? Inquire today to come to the table as a CCFI member.