Food Standards Scotland has published the results of its fifth Food in Scotland Consumer Tracking Survey which reveal that young women are less likely to make healthy food choices when eating out of the home.
According to the survey, which measures the Scottish public’s attitudes to diet, nutrition, food safety and authenticity, 61% of women aged 16-34 tend to eat less healthily in restaurants, cafes, from takeaways or on the go, compared to the national average of 48%.
The survey also found that price has the biggest influence when choosing where to out for this group of women at 75% and they considered healthy food options to be less important (22%).
In addition, this group of women in Scotland were almost one third more likely than Scotland as a whole to agree that the price of food means they don’t often buy the food they’d like to (65% v 47%).
Overall 77% believe the nation needs to make significant changes to what they eat. 47% of adults recognise that they eat too many treats every day and young women are the most aware of the changes they need to make to their diets - 59% say they know they eat too many snacks such as cakes and biscuits daily and 62% know they need to do something to eat more healthily compared to the national average of 54%.