What’s the ‘intention-behaviour gap’ and why is it important for fine food retailers?

We’ve all been there. You had the best intentions to rustle up a nutritious meal for the family at the end of the day, but for whatever reason – work ran long, you forgot to pick up a key ingredient or you just couldn’t find the motivation after an exhausting commute – you end up throwing an easy frozen meal in the oven instead.

Even us food-loving people who take great joy in preparing meals from scratch are hit by these roadblocks. And now, research from EIT Food reveals that across Europe, many people want to eat healthier and more sustainably, but habit and affordability too often stand in the way.

In its recently launched Trust Report 2026, the organisation polled nearly 20,000 consumers across 18 European countries to reveal the latest trends on how people in Europe eat. The findings make it clear that fine food retailers have an important role to play in the broader food and drink sector.

The intention-behaviour gap

“One of the clearest findings from the Trust Report is the gap between what people say they want to eat and what they actually eat,” explains Klaus Grunert, professor of marketing at Aarhus University and lead of the EIT Food Consumer Observatory.

Indeed, health was found to be the biggest priority, with more than half of consumers (51%) saying they want to eat more healthily, beating concerns over affordability or sustainability. 

Although people recognise the negative health effects of salty, fatty, sugary or processed foods, only around a third of consumers avoid them. Many Europeans are also continuing to neglect key healthy foods, such as fruit, vegetables and fibre. It suggests that intention alone is not enough to transform eating habits.

Practical ways for fine food retailers to change habits - and boost sales

Many healthier and more sustainable food and drink products are already the bread and butter for farm shops and delis. This poses a big opportunity for independent food and drink retailers – but how can retailers help consumers make the switch?

“For small and independent retailers, the opportunity lies in helping to make those choices feel easier and more achievable within people’s everyday routines,” Klaus tells Speciality Food. 

“There is a lot of overlap between affordable, sustainable and healthy foods, but consumers do not always recognise or prioritise these connections when making everyday purchasing decisions,” he continues. 

Independent retailers can help bridge this gap by shining a light on products that deliver on the things consumers care about most – health, taste, sustainability and value. “When products clearly meet several of these priorities at once, they are much more likely to end up in people’s baskets,” Klaus points out.

Retailers can also help to reduce the barriers consumers see with changing habits. Even the way you set up your displays can have a real impact, Klaus says.

“Simple things such as displaying ingredients together for easy meal ideas, highlighting affordable staples like pulses, legumes or seasonal produce, or sharing cooking inspiration can make healthy and sustainable choices feel much more practical and achievable for everyday life,” he explains.

This all plays right into another factor that highlights why independent food retailers are so well placed to support customers to make the switch: community and trust are at the heart of their operations. The bonds built between fine food retailers and their customers can not only help encourage healthy and more sustainable swaps, but it can also make these changes last.

“By curating products carefully and helping shoppers understand how to use them, they can help make healthy and sustainable choices feel straightforward rather than aspirational,” Klaus says.

How else can the UK encourage healthy eating?

While Klaus highlights the way independent food retailers can help close the intention-behaviour gap in healthy and sustainable eating, Rob Percival, head of food policy at the Soil Association, argues there is more to be done on a governmental level.

“It comes as no surprise that affordability and entrenched habits are the driving factors for consumers struggling to eat healthy and minimally processed foods on a daily basis,” Rob says. 

He believes the government must act to make minimally processed foods more affordable for shoppers – as they so nearly did in the past. “Emails obtained from our The Whole Truth Investigation in 2025 exposed how the government’s Department of Health and Social Care had planned to encourage retailers to reduce the prices of minimally processed foods, yet at the last minute lobbyists working on behalf of the UK’s biggest ultra-processed food companies demanded that this not happen,” Rob tells Speciality Food.

And Rob is not alone. Polling released by The Food Foundation revealed 69% of people think the UK government should be doing more to ensure everyone can afford and access healthy food.

“There is also a clear government policy gap,” Rob continues. “This can be seen in the so-called Eatwell Guide, which communicates government dietary advice, implicitly encourages consumption of whole foods through recommendations like eating at least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily, but includes no explicit advice around processing.”

Indeed, although people are becoming more aware of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and their potential harms, there is still a lack of clarity around what makes a product ‘ultra-processed’.

“This issue is still imminent today,” Rob says, adding that the government’s food strategy must “resist the influence of the ultra-processed food industry and make it easy for everyone to enjoy a minimally processed diet”.

In February, more than 100 major UK supermarkets, food businesses, investors, NGOs and academics put their names on a joint statement calling for the government to introduce a new ‘Good Food Bill’ to transform the UK’s food system and ensure food and nutrition security now and in the future.

“The UK currently has very little strategic oversight to ensure everybody gets properly fed,” says Kath Dalmeny, chief executive of Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming. “But through smart investment, aligned trade policy and the right targets, legislation can unlock opportunities for growth, build resilient supply chains, and create a food system that works from farm to fork - supporting sustainable farming, protecting public health, and ensuring nobody goes without healthy, nutritious food in a country as wealthy as our own.”

As Speciality Food has previously found, food and drink that promote health and wellness aren’t a passing fad, but a valuable option. As EIT Food’s report shows, farm shops, delis and food halls are uniquely placed to help customers make the switch to the healthier and more sustainable food they’re already craving.