Old favourites still the most popular

Chinese is the most popular international cuisine for Australians, according to the findings of a national Roy Morgan survey released last week.

The State of the Nation Report, which asked 52,119 Australians to name the cuisines they prefer, found the traditional ethnic cuisines of Australia’s earlier immigrants remain the most popular. However they are being challenged by other cuisines such as Thai, Indian and Mexican. 

Seventy-three per cent of respondents said they prefer Chinese, while 60 per cent said Italian, 52 per cent said Thai, 45 per cent said Indian and 38 per cent said Mexican.

When looking at Australians attitudes to food, the survey found that 52 per cent of Australians say they won’t buy genetically modified food if they can help it; 50 per cent of Australians say that taste is more important than ingredients, and 46 per cent of Australians try to buy additive-free food.

Norman Morris, Industry Communications Director for Roy Morgan Research, says the data also shows that “the people who belong to higher socio-economic group are more likely go to restaurants and cafés than the other groups”.

“With the constantly changing preference within Australian society in food related activities such as eating out, ordering take away and the types of cuisines preferred, the Australian food industry will need to understand what their customers want in order to ensure demand is met with the right products and services,” he says.