I have a friend who is convinced coconut oil is the oil of the gods — the be all end all of healthy food.
Others that I’ve talked with are absolutely positive that olive oil is the one and only, healthiest oil.
Period.
[Picture Spartacus of the health foodies.]
Right now, there’s a number of different cooking oils that are battling for the title of “The Healthiest Oil”. Depending on who you listen to, you could be convinced either way. But that’s not what’s important for you and your food brand.
What’s key for you in the natural food industry is to understand what your specific customers actually want to see in their food. Usually when you’re talking about the typical Whole Foods’ customer, this answer is the healthiest ingredient that still tastes good”.
I wanted to get an idea of what people really thought, so I did a quick survey.
I did it on on Three Cents, a surveying app, which t allowed me to get feedback from the every day consumer on what they considered to be the healthiest oils.
This is a good starting place to get an idea of what the average consumer thinks. After you see the results below, the next step will be for you to take this survey to your customers and let them answer it for you.
Below you can see the survey results from a total of 76 consumers.
As you can see, going with olive oil is a smart choice. Coconut oil, another good choice.
Is your current oil having a positive affect on the consumer perception of your brand? Or is the oil that you’re using now actually be hurting your product’s healthy perception?
In all actuality, this was a small survey, so before you base any real business decisions off of it, you should submit a similar survey to your target market:
What oils do your actual customers think are healthiest?
What oils do they want to see in your product?
How important is price vs. quality?
Consider the three cents app to submit it— I thought it was fast and easy to use and can get you some real time feedback without paying thousands for official consumer surveys.
At the end of the day, extra virgin olive oil is probably still healthier than sunflower oil. But the debate is more complicated than that when you have to take prices and flavor profiles into account.
Don’t rule these two healthy oils out — they’re extremely popular with the Whole Foods crowd right now (especially organic and conventional high oleic sunflower oil).