PMA completed eight consumer surveys last year and has recently made the results available to its subscribers.

The organisation’s research team polled consumers on a broad range of topics, including the importance of produce to retail store and restaurant choices, the opportunity presented by convenience stores, food safety surrounding fresh-cut and leafy salads, what motivates parents to purchase more produce, and the new flexitarians - people who eat a less rigid but still mostly vegetarian diet.

The major findings are:

• Produce has tremendous purchase power, driving supermarket choice and restaurant choice for many consumers. It is a key driver in supermarket choice, to the point that nearly half have changed supermarkets for better fruit and vegetables.

Meanwhile, 43 per cent of respondents said fresh produce offerings were “very much” a factor in what restaurant they chose. After trying a new produce item in a restaurant, almost 30 per cent of respondents reported they looked for and/or purchased that item at their supermarket.

• Produce is gaining prominence on the plate. Flexitarians can now be found in 14 per cent of households and consumers are buying more entrée salads, side salads, fresh-cut fruit salads, and vegetarian entrées, when out of the home.

• Taste rules, along with quality, selection, and convenience. Taste was supremely important to 81 per cent of respondents to a survey about foodservice; nutrition was also ranked as very important by 62 per cent.

Parents ranked health and nutrition, quality, variety, and convenience as most motivating them to purchase more fruits and vegetables for their children.

Meanwhile, 24 per cent of respondents said they would buy more produce if retail pricing was better, 15 per cent if it was fresher and better quality, and eight per cent wanted better variety and selection.

• Fresh-cut produce continues to gain in popularity. An overwhelming 86 per cent of consumers said they had purchased fresh-cut produce in the past year. Forty-one per cent said they had bought more fresh-cut items in the past year, while 34 per cent planned to increase purchases in the year ahead.

• Food safety is still causing concern. PMA commissioned consumer surveys on the topic of food safety in February and May, before and after an NBC Dateline segment on fresh-cut food safety. While the broadcast did not increase the share of overall consumers expressing concerns about food safety, it appeared to elevate levels among those already concerned.

Most consumers rated the safety of bagged salad highly in both pre and post-segment research studies. The association also commissioned surveys in September and October, at the beginning and end of leafy green salad recalls over food safety issues.

• Organic produce has a following both at retail and foodservice. Two percent of consumers reported that they would buy more produce if more organic options were available, while four per cent of parents reported similarly in a different survey. When dining out, 35 per cent of respondents to a May survey told PMA they were more likely to order a menu item if it was organically grown, while 28 per cent were less likely.

Diners’ interest is fairly price-sensitive; 57 per cent were less likely to buy an organic dish if it had a 20 per cent price premium (though those who said they were more likely to purchase organic were less price-sensitive).

• Thirty-seven per cent of respondents reported they had bought a fresh fruit or vegetable at a convenience store in the past year - primarily bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes, but also salad bowls and fresh-cut fruit bowls. Eight per cent reported they had bought fresh produce from c-stores more often over the past year.