Safe and secure: Risk averse consumers want reassurance over product safety

Proportion of consumers in South Africa who say that they would like more safety assurance on the handling and manufacturing of products as a result of COVID-19

29%

24% 29% 43%

April 2020 May 2020 July 2020 February 2021

Source: COVID-19 survey, Q1 2021 (1,000 respondents)

Proportion of consumers in South Africa who say that they are being more attentive to the country of origin of products as a result of COVID-19

32% 40% 55% 63%

April 2020 May 2020 July 2020 February 2021

Source: COVID-19 survey, Q1 2021 (1,000 respondents)

Rediscovering health:

Consumers are looking to boost their immune health in order to minimise their risk of vulnerability to disease and illness

Across Africa and the Middle East, consumers are becoming more conscious about their immune health as a result of COVID-19. Indeed, worry about vulnerability to disease and illness is not restricted to those consumers associated with being more easily susceptible to serious problems arising from the disease, such as the elderly or those with underlying health problems. Instead, consumers of all ages are becoming more concerned about their immunity. This is being driven in part by consumers recognising that changing dietary habits and lifestyles – such as greater levels of inactivity due to digital dependency – are having a direct impact on the immune system.

As a result of this, consumers are taking a long-term and proactive approach to health maintenance. This means looking to address areas of health, even if not suffering from specific symptoms, in order to stay fit and active until as late in life as possible. Consumers will look to do this by changing their dietary habits, something that they will do in two ways. Firstly, consumers are looking to moderate their intake of perceived dietary evils such as sugar and additives which they deem detrimental to their health. Secondly, consumers are looking to maximise their intake of functional ingredients associated with offering a health boost beyond basic nutrition.

Ingredient-led claims will become more influential on purchasing habits over the next couple of years. This will be the result of consumers becoming more aware and educated about different ingredients and benefits, and also taking a proactive approach to health. As such, consumers will increasingly seek out functional and fortified products. Those products that are positioned around offering a variety of benefits simultaneously, will be of high appeal to consumers.

When selecting functional products, consumers are more likely to opt for food and drink products over supplements. This is because consumers associate food and drink products with being more affordable, tastier, and easier to incorporate into their diets. In comparison, consumers can demonstrate several concerns towards nutritional supplements, such as ease of digestion, ingredients used in formulation, product safety, and risk of side effects. This is something that the nutritional supplement industry needs to address.

It is also important that functional claims on food, drink, and supplement products are deemed transparent and credible, and that claims are not seen to be exaggerated or misleading.