<p>Obesity and overweight are today classified as one of the largest epidemics in the Western world and is threaten a large part of the population. As a reaction to this a major health trend has emerged in recent decades. Every day consumers are exposed to information from the media about what is healthy or unhealthy to eat and the recommendations change frequently.</p><p>There is great interest in healthy food on the Swedish food market, but still healthy foods only represents a small proportion of the total food sales. The essay examines the gap between the current and potential demand for healthy food and if it can be explained by any of the following factors: lack of information, price, taste or cognitive behavioral.</p><p>To study these questions a quantitative method have been used and 213 questionnaires were collected. The intention is to draw general conclusions about the entire population. We discussed and analyzed the quantitative data together with the frame of reference based on the four factors and the discussion led us to the following conclusions:</p><p>Price and parts of the cognitive behavior inhibits the consumption of healthy foods on the Swedish food market. The other factors studied can not explain the inhibited consumption.</p><p>Based on the conclusions we recommend “svenska Livsmedelsverket” to communicate its policies through traditional marketing channels to better reach out to all consumers. We also believe the Swedish food market is ready for a new store concept with only healthy food.</p>

Obesity and overweight are today classified as one of the largest epidemics in the Western world and is threaten a large part of the population. As a reaction to this a major health trend has emerged in recent decades. Every day consumers are exposed to information from the media about what is healthy or unhealthy to eat and the recommendations change frequently. There is great interest in healthy food on the Swedish food market, but still healthy foods only represents a small proportion of the total food sales. The essay examines the gap between the current and potential demand for healthy food and if it can be explained by any of the following factors: lack of information, price, taste or cognitive behavioral. To study these questions a quantitative method have been used and 213 questionnaires were collected. The intention is to draw general conclusions about the entire population. We discussed and analyzed the quantitative data together with the frame of reference based on the four factors and the discussion led us to the following conclusions: Price and parts of the cognitive behavior inhibits the consumption of healthy foods on the Swedish food market. The other factors studied can not explain the inhibited consumption. Based on the conclusions we recommend “svenska Livsmedelsverket” to communicate its policies through traditional marketing channels to better reach out to all consumers. We also believe the Swedish food market is ready for a new store concept with only healthy food.