“Rapid economic growth and rising incomes have led to significant changes in consumers’ lifestyles, and the way Chinese people buy and eat food. This has brought with it great potential for food manufacturers, retailers and foodservice providers to develop new and innovative products to meet the greatly diversifying needs and tastes of Chinese consumers, who continue to be receptive to new food products and concepts.

Achieving success selling such new food products and services to Chinese consumers increasingly means reassuring them on the issues of food safety, while providing them with more information about achieving a healthy and balanced diet. Communicating the health and nutritional benefits of food products requires taking a more diverse approach, using both traditional and new media channels, and engaging with consumers directly through in-store promotions and cooking demonstrations.

There are also opportunities to develop a wider variety of food products and services to suit the increasing variation in people’s lifestyles, providing convenience to those with busy working lives, value-added products to those with high expectations, and quality at an affordable price to those on lower incomes, particularly in developing markets in lower tier cities.”

The scope of this report is the eating and food purchasing habits and attitudes of consumers in the People’s Republic of China. In terms of where they buy food, the report covers the following outlet types:

• Supermarkets

• Hypermarkets

• Convenience stores

• Vending machines

• Wet markets

• Cafés/tea houses

• Restaurants

• Home delivery food or take-away (eg fried chicken, pizza, Chinese food)

• Online food retailers.

In terms of eating occasions, the report covers the following occasions:

• Breakfast at home

• Breakfast out of home (eg in a restaurant, café, etc)

• Take-away breakfast (eg from a street stall, home/office delivery, etc)

• Lunch at home

• Lunch out of home (eg in a restaurant, café, etc)

• Take-away lunch (eg from a street stall, home/office delivery, etc)

• Dinner at home

• Dinner out of home (eg in a restaurant, café, etc)

• Take-away dinner (eg from a street stall, home/office delivery, etc).

For the purpose of this report, Mintel commissioned a quantitative research survey carried out online to explore consumer food eating, shopping and spending habits among consumers aged between 20 and 49.

Fieldwork was conducted in May 2013, in four tier one cities, three tier two cities and three tier three cities of 3,000 consumers aged 20+. The tier one cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The tier two cities are Shijiazhuang, Xiamen and Wuhan. The tier three cities are Dalian, Jiaxing and Ningbo.