Áustria
Questionnaires inspired from the 2009 and 2010 surveys, called the FOOD barometers, are launched every year since 2012 in order to monitor on the evolution of the habits and opinions of both target groups about balanced nutrition.
Austria participated to the FOOD barometers for the first time in 2016.
Employees
In 2019, 50% of Austrian employees have lunch on a daily basis. It is below the European average (71%). Among the FOOD programme countries, Austria has the lowest share of employees taking a lunch break every day.
48% of Austrian employees usually eat a meal in a restaurant.
In 2019, Austrian workers considered important the having a restaurant close to their workplace (96%) and a quick service (89%), when having lunch. They also favor restaurants offering locally produced food (89%).
In 2019, 87% of Austrian employees consider important or very important the nutritional quality of the meals served when choosing a place to have lunch. It is higher than the European average of the FOOD programme countries (77%); thus Austrian employees pay attention to the balance of their meal at lunchtime.
In 2019, 60% of Austrian employees declare that the balance of the dish affects their decision-making on what to have at lunch. It is the second most chosen criterion and comes before the price (30%).
Restaurants
In 2019, 63% of Austrian restaurants have a high level of knowledge on balanced nutrition. It is the country where the highest share of restaurants declared so. 35% of Austrian restaurants have a low to medium level of knowledge on balanced nutrition and could/should learn more.
In 2019, 32% of Austrian restaurants observed an increase in the demand for balanced/healthy meals. It is similar to the EU average (31%).
47% of Austrian restaurant owners do not believe it is more difficult to prepare healthy/balanced meals.
Conclusions
The connection between the Offer and the Demand for balanced food offer in Austria is quite good. Austrian employees pay a great attention to eating healthy food when choosing a restaurant or when choosing what they are going to have for lunch and it is partly reflected in the restaurants’ side as close to a third of them notice an increased demand for healthy meal options. Moreover, Austrian restaurants do not have strong prejudices about balanced nutrition and mostly declare having a good knowledge about balanced nutrition.