Date: August 3, 2023

The Bahrain Center for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (Derasat) recently published an analytical report derived from surveying 713 individuals in the Kingdom of Bahrain on their awareness of nutritional ingredients of foodstuff. The report aimed at identifying societal knowledge of various elements in food, measure the popularity of label reading among consumers, discover the ingredients of most concern, and consumer priorities when choosing dietary products. Derasat statisticians discovered that most of the surveyed individuals took up walking and jogging as regular fitness disciplines, read their foods’ nutritional information labels mainly for calorie counting followed by sugar and fat content respectively. Family members exchanged opinions before buying, and there was an equal view of importance for ingredients, validity dates, and prices. Mr. Ahmed Abdul-Hameed Al-Ammadi, Head of the Derasat Statistical Analysis at the Opinion Polls and Surveys Directorate said, “This survey indicates the level of nutritional awareness, and the indicators and driving factors behind food purchase decisions, which urged us to discover what the individual eats based on health and quality priorities, as well as balancing good ingredients with sensible spending without wasting food”. Statistics revealed that 88 percent of those surveyed saw product availability and country of origin equally important, whereas only 10 percent favored organic foods, and 76 percent preferred food products with distant expiration dates.