Changes in dietary preferences: new challenges for sustainability and innovation

The transformations in dietary habits that have occurred over these past decades draw attention to important issues concerning the relationship between lifestyles, diet and health, and open new challenges for the operators of the agricultural and food sector. This study intends to analyse these evolutions, comparing the dietary preferences of generation X in 2001 with its dietary preferences in 2011, and those of the following generation, the so-called generation Y. The analysis was conducted by applying latent class clustering to the food spending of a representative sample of Italian consumers. It has enabled us to identify the prevalent food patterns in 2001 and 2011 and to analyse their transformations, interpreting them in light of social, cultural and economic changes. The comparison of food pattern characteristics over this period highlights the emergence of trends that move in two different directions. The first of these is the rise of a new dietary sensitivity towards a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and fish. The other concerns food patterns that are more vulnerable to diseases related to an unhealthy diet. These trends should draw the attention of public operators to the need for communication campaigns that target specific segments and aim to direct food habits towards healthier behaviours. On the one hand, a change in supply could also contribute to improving the diet, especially if aimed at products with a high content of services and at establishments that serve food. Finally, the birth of a niche of consumers particularly drawn towards healthy eating opens the way for industry to propose a series of innovative products.