Consumer food confidence: overview
- Consumers increasingly trust personal judgement despite low food system trust
- Seventy-two percent believe food health knowledge is now sufficient
- Seventy-seven percent say they understand what constitutes a healthy diet
- Confidence finding reliable food information rose from 43% to 49%
- Higher confidence strongly correlates with greater trust in industry
In recent years, consumer distrust in the food system has grown.
Consumers increasingly do not trust key food players and demand transparency, particularly regarding health.
Nevertheless, in an age where information is easily accessible and people are often highly educated about their food choices, consumers often have greater confidence in their ability to make those choices.
Consumers are confident they know what a healthy diet looks like
Consumers are increasingly confident that they understand healthy diets.
According to a report on European consumers by the organisation EIT Food, around 72% believed that their knowledge of the healthiness of food was sufficient as of 2025 (up from 68% in 2024). The proportion of those who feel they know what a healthy diet is charts even higher, at 77%.
Such confidence has a clear correlation with social class and education, says EIT Food: the higher their education level is, the more confident consumers tend to be.
Nevertheless, this is evenly distributed among different age groups, meaning younger and older consumers share a similar level of confidence.
Consumers more confident finding reliable information
Consumers are also more confident that they can discern reliable food information.
This confidence has grown from 43% to 49% from 2024 to 2025, according to EIT Food’s report. Just over half said that they know where to find reliable information about food, up from 48%.
Older consumers tend to be less confident than others in this: the figure for those over 55 is just 44%.
Trust in the food system itself remains low
Despite this, trust in the food system remains low, according to EIT Food. Even farmers, the most trusted segment of the food and beverage industry, still are not relied upon by all consumers when it comes to health and sustainability information.
Manufacturers, retailers, authorities and restaurants are all distrusted by a significant chunk of consumers, and this is not improving – in some cases, trust is even declining.
Doctors and health practitioners, however, retain their position as the most trusted source of food information, in contrast to online influencers, who remain the least trusted.
Knowledge is also correlated with trust. Those who are more confident about factors such as health and sustainability also have more trust in the food industry. Of those who had no trust in the food industry, 59% had a high level of confidence in determining healthy diets, compared with 84% of those who had a higher level of trust.
Confidence is growing
Overall, 66% of consumers believe that they are equipped to make good food choices, according to EIT Food, a six percentage-point increase between 2024 and 2025 (although younger consumers are often less positive about their ability to make the right food choices than older ones).
Only one in ten are unhappy with the food choices that they make.
Despite their distrust in the food system, consumers increasingly trust themselves to make the right decisions, and to choose the right sources to listen to about them.
