Consumer Attitudes About Soy
24 August 2010 by Aaron Tabor
Each year since 1994, the United Soybean Board has published the results of an annual survey conducted to assess consumers beliefs and behaviors regarding nutrition. This survey, Consumer Attitudes about Nutrition, also includes information on consumer attitudes about soy. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of these survey results.
Perceptions on Soyfoods and Health: According to the 2010 survey, 84% of consumers rate soy products as healthy. This is similar to survey results collected since 2007 with 84-85% of consumers rating soy products as healthy each year. While this is a substantial increase compared to 10 years ago, the current steady level over the last few years suggests that more can be done to increase the awareness of soy’s benefits. According to the 2010 survey, consumers link soy to being good for the reduction of heart disease risk (FDA heart health claim for soy) (25% of consumers), being low in fat (17%), being a good source of protein (16%), and being ‘good for you’ (14%).
Learning About Soy: Another part of this survey asked consumers how they learned about the benefits of soy. Not unexpectedly, the most common source of soy information cited was television news (47% of consumers). Internet news was the second most common source of news on soy (44%) followed closely be magazines, family & friends, and newspapers. The number of consumers getting information from these sources increased in every instance compared to 8 years ago with the exception of magazines, which decreased. This nearly across-the-board increase suggests that information about soy is more widely available. Interestingly, one of the lowest sources of information about soy is the health professional. Only 17% of consumers learn about soy from their doctors, which is only 5% higher than in 1994.
