Shoppers want to know what is in their food, and retailers are responding
Food manufacturers have spent years competing on price, brand recognition, convenience and taste. Now another question is becoming harder to ignore: do shoppers understand what is actually inside the products they buy?
Ocado Retail is responding to this growing interest with a new online aisle called Simple Ingredients, bringing together more than 350 branded products selected for their recognisable ingredients and the absence of certain artificial additives, including colours, flavours, emulsifiers and stabilisers.
At first glance, it looks like a straightforward website development. But the move raises a bigger question for the food industry. Could the ingredients list become a more important factor in how products are discovered, promoted and sold?
According to research commissioned by Ocado, 74% of surveyed UK shoppers prefer products containing ingredients they recognise, while 65% say shopping would be easier if they could quickly identify products with fewer added ingredients. More than half also said they struggle to know which ingredients have been added to the food they buy.
These figures point to a gap between what consumers want to know and how easily they can find that information when shopping.
The online supermarket becomes a guide
Online retailers have an advantage when responding to changing shopping habits. Unlike a physical supermarket, where customers may have to examine several packs on the shelf, an online retailer can create dedicated categories, introduce filters and make particular product characteristics more visible.
Ocado says searches on its platform for “unprocessed” increased by 178% year on year, while searches for “wholefood” rose by 133% and “natural” by 59%. The company has also reported a substantial increase in searches for M&S’s Only range, which focuses on products with eight or fewer ingredients and no artificial colours or preservatives.
These figures are worth watching, although search activity alone does not tell us how many customers ultimately buy the products or whether they become regular purchases.
For manufacturers, the commercial message is clear enough. Product formulation matters, but so does the way that formulation is explained to shoppers. A product may have a strong brand and an attractive price, yet still leave consumers uncertain about its ingredients.
Retailers that make product information easier to understand could gain an advantage, particularly among shoppers who want to make more informed choices without spending several minutes reading every label.
Transparency is not the same as healthier food
There is a distinction that should not be lost in this discussion. Recognisable ingredients do not automatically make a product healthier, just as a long ingredients list does not, by itself, prove that a product is unhealthy.
Nor should every additive be treated as a sign of poor quality. Ingredients can serve important functions in food safety, consistency, texture and shelf life. The challenge is to give consumers clear information without turning a complicated subject into a simplistic good-food-versus-bad-food debate.
This is where food manufacturers and retailers need to be careful. A category such as Simple Ingredients can help shoppers navigate a large online range, but the criteria behind it must be understandable. Customers should know what a product has been selected for, rather than assuming that a particular label is a guarantee of superior nutritional value.
A commercial opportunity for suppliers
The bigger development is the possibility that ingredient transparency will become another point of competition between brands. Manufacturers may face greater pressure to simplify recipes where commercially and technically possible, communicate more clearly on packaging and provide retailers with information that can be used across websites and product listings.
That will not suit every product, and reformulation is not always straightforward. Cost, taste, manufacturing processes and product stability all have to be considered. Nevertheless, suppliers should pay attention to the questions shoppers are asking and how retailers are responding.
For supermarket buyers, the opportunity is to make product choice easier while helping customers understand the differences between products. For manufacturers, the task is to explain those differences honestly and convincingly.
Ocado’s new aisle is not proof that shoppers are abandoning established brands or that every product must now have a shorter ingredients list. It is an indication that the way food is described and presented is becoming part of the retail competition.
The next test will be whether this interest translates into sustained sales. If it does, ingredient transparency could move from a niche selling point to a more significant consideration in product development, online merchandising and supermarket buying decisions
