Healthy Eating Focus Groups

The Food Standards Agency Scotland has funded consumer research specifically to look at innovative ways of encouraging consumers to eat better. The first Consumer Attitudes to Food Standards Survey 2001 suggested that there was a considerable gap between people's awareness of what they should eat and what they actually do eat. The aim of the focus groups was to help inform FSA Scotland on possible ways to address this gap between awareness and behaviour. The qualitative research involved ten focus groups split by age, socio-economic group and geographical area. The brief included identifying the main barriers to eating more healthily and gathering views on how these may best be addressed. The information from this study will help provide FSA Scotland with a good evidence base on which to develop a Diet and Nutrition Strategy for FSA Scotland.