Report: Gender differences small in consumer attitudes about food

A new consumer survey suggests only small differences in gender-based preferences about food, such as decisions to buy organic, check nutrition labels or recycle packaging.

Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability considered gender differences in food spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies, and trust in information sources, according to a news release.

“In this issue, we break down our results across male/female and married/unmarried respondents,” Jayson Lusk, the head and distinguished professor of agricultural economics at Purdue who leads the center, said in the release. “We wanted to explore gender gaps in food consumption and the effect of marriage choices. We often focus on differences in these reports, but the similarity between men and women in some of our data is notable. Some might think that men and women go about their shopping in different ways with different priorities,” Lusk said.

Purdue experts conducted and evaluated the survey, which included 1,200 married and single consumers of both sexes across the U.S.

All four categories of respondents (single male, married male, single female, married female) stated they sometimes choose generic foods over brand-name foods, according to the release.

The four groups ranked six categories of food attributes almost exactly the same from top to bottom. 

The six attributes they rated in order of importance when they shopped for food were taste, nutrition, affordability, availability, environmental impact and social responsibility.

Additional results of the report include: 

• Food spending remains near its 2022 peak.
• Women face higher food insecurity than men, but married women are faring much better.
• Women and unmarried people broadly express more progressive food politics.
• The survey found nearly half of married men are very happy with both their diets and lives, while unmarried women, as well as unmarried men, report the lowest rates of happiness.
• Married men agree that GMO food is safe to eat by 12 to 25 points more than other groups.
• The report found women clearly distrust McDonald’s and other food companies such as Tyson and Nestle more than men.
• Women also distrust Fox News more, while men distrust CNN more.
• Married men trust their doctors more than other groups, and married women trust their family members more than other groups, the survey found.
• Women express slightly more trust for government agencies (FDA/USDA) than men.

The September report includes a new question about how people define the term "regenerative,” according to the release.

“Based on our results, ‘regenerative’ seems to be synonymous with ‘sustainable’ in the minds of many consumers,” Lusk said in the release. “Interestingly, some practices that typically fall under ‘regenerative,’ such as no-till farming, are comparatively much less associated with ‘regenerative.’”

In addition, the report indicated that many consumers expect food inflation to decline, despite the fact that grocery prices in August were 13.5% above year-ago levels.

“It is a waiting game to see if consumer intuition is indicative of the future or if their inflation expectations will go back up,” Sam Polzin, a food and agricultural survey scientist for the center and the report’s co-author, said in the release.

The full report is available online.