According to estimates from Euromonitor International, the Chinese market will consume more processed foods than the United States by the year 2015.
According to estimates from Euromonitor International, the Chinese market will consume more processed foods than the United States by the year 2015.
Although the traditional Chinese diet consists of rice, vegetables, and a little meat, that’s changing and modern Chinese families are eating more Western style food, which includes processed and packaged fast food.
In China, the rise of urbanization and more life style conveniences have led to a change in diet as well as some health problems.
According to Lauren Bandy, an ingredients analyst at Euromonitor: “The major consumer in China doesn’t have as much to spend on their products. So they’re not really able to afford packaged food with these other added value ingredients like vitamins or preservative free items.”
Projections indicate that China will consume 107 million tons of packaged food by 2015, compared to102 million tons in the US the same year.
Due to population size, this translates to the average Chinese eating only a quarter of the amount of processed food that the average American eats.
Despite being lower than the US, this would however represent an increase of approximately 66 percent in the consumption of processed foods from 2008.
