Reasons for worrying about the amount of fat in food are in particular a healthy diet, weight and the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Note

The data quoted here is largely taken from a report from the Netherlands Nutrition Centre prepared in 2007. The Netherlands Nutrition Centre in collaboration with the Netherlands Heart Foundation instructed the research office Motivaction to research the knowledge, attitude and need for information of consumers with reference to fats, particularly saturated fat.

Download

Factsheet Consumer knowledge about fats

What does the consumer worry about where health is concerned?

More than half of the population finds it important to watch the amount of fat in food. In fact, where healthy eating is concerned, eating less fat is the first thing that comes to mind.

The most commonly named reasons for watching the amount of fat are a healthy diet, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases and maintaining the correct weight. In order to achieve this latter objective the consumer chooses most often to eat less between meals (56%) or for products with less fat (50%). But eating products with more fibre (42%) or with less sugar (36%) are also often mentioned, just as are taking more exercise (38%) or eating smaller portions (25%). Older persons (55-65 years) take eating less fat into account because of a special diet when choosing their food, and the slightly younger age group (45-54 years) also pays more than average attention to the amount of fat in food in order to prevent contracting such ailments as a high cholesterol level or cardiovascular diseases.