Discovery of Recent Changes in Consumer Behaviour Around Food Information (FIC)

In 2011, the European Union (EU) passed Regulation No. 1169/2011 on the provision of Food Information to Consumers (EU FIC Regulation). This regulation required member states to modify existing food labelling regulations, with the aim of:

1) Enabling consumers to make more informed choices; 2) Increasing the safe use of food; and 3) Ensuring the free movement of legally produced and marketed food, within the EU.

The Withdrawal Act retained Regulation No. 1169/2011 into UK law.

In 2014 and 2018, Defra commissioned two studies in succession to establish a baseline against which the effect of changes brought in by the EU FIC Regulation could be tracked and to review the extent of how the objectives of EU FIC have been achieved.

We are now commissioning new research to provide an update assessing the impact of the FIC regulation and to measure recent changes in consumer behaviour and business activity bought about by recent legislative, societal, and technological changes. The evidence will be used to underpin food labelling policy development.

We are purchasing one type of service and procuring one contract. The project is defined by two work packages.

Work Package 1 seeks to understand what conclusions can be drawn from existing evidence around how consumers respond to different food labels on the same food products.

The Contractor will be required to undertake a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) as developed by Defra. If during the lifetime of the contract it is identified that findings from the REA need to be explored in more detail and are within scope of the original requirement, this may be instructed through the variation procedure outlined in the contract.

Work Package 2 will consist of various survey methods to gain insights into consumer options, understanding, behaviours and confidence levels in relation to existing and new food labels and how businesses and industry have adapted to FIC legislation.

This is an outcome driven requirement which will provide: • Show to what extent to FIC objectives have been achieved, and how key indicators have changed from the baseline (2014) and follow-up study (2018). • Provide additional evidence to support future interventions on Country-of-Origin labels (COOL). • Evidence the impact of recent legislative, societal, and technological changes to food labelling on consumers and industry.