República Eslovaca
Two sets of questionnaires inspired from the 2009 and 2010 surveys, called the FOOD barometers, have been launched every year since 2012 to monitor the evolution of the habits and opinions of both target groups (employees and restaurants) about balanced nutrition.
Employees
In 2019, 815 of Slovak employees have lunch on a daily basis. It was higher than the European average (71%). This figure remained high and stable over the past 5 years.
Half (50%) of the Slovak employees usually eat a dish or a complete meal, or homemade food (39%).
In 2019, when choosing a place to have lunch, Slovak workers consider important or very important practical criteria linked to working life constraints such as a quick service (80%) and the location of the restaurant, close to the workplace (61%).
A high share of Slovak employees (63%) consider important or very important the nutritional quality of the meals served when choosing a place to have lunch.
In 2019, Slovak employees mainly choose what to eat at lunch according to "what they want at the present time (80%).
They also take into account the dish of the day, or speciality of the house (40%).
The balance of the dish (40%) is also an important criterion.
Restaurants
In 2019, 45% of Slovak restaurants declare having a medium level of knowledge about balanced nutrition and could learn more. It is lower than the European average (53%).
In 2019, half (52%) of Slovak restaurants noticed an increased demand for balanced/healthy meals. This figure has been overall increasing over the past 5 years, reflecting the growing demand for healthier food, also noticed on the employees’ side.
In 2019, Slovak restaurants have positive opinions about balanced nutrition. 58% of them believe healthy food tastes as good as less healthy options.
35% of them think that preparing healthy meals is more expensive.
However 49% of them do not believe it takes more time to cook healthy/balanced meals.
Conclusions
The connection between Offer and Demand for a balanced food offer is rather good in Slovakia. Slovak employees pay a growing attention to the balance of their meals and it is reflected to a good extent in the perception of restaurants of their customers. Slovak restaurants have rather positive opinions about healthy cooking, even though they tend to have slightly more and more prejudices about balanced nutrition.