Dutch people most often choose the easy way when cooking, especially if they don't want to lose time for other activities. No less than 23% heat something up or cook with – partly – prepared dishes. This is apparent from research by Knorr among 12,000 consumers from 6 European countries, including more than 2,000 Dutch people. Only 5% of Poles and Spaniards choose the easy way. The fastest eaters in Europe are the British:76% never takes more than 30 minutes to prepare an evening meal, including cooking. The French and Spaniards take more than 30 minutes a day to prepare dinner and then spend at least another 30 minutes at the table.
The main aim of the study was to find out how much value Europeans now attach to sustainably grown food. Some 65% of all respondents now think that sustainably grown vegetables, herbs and spices taste better and almost everyone (98%) believes that we should use our farmland carefully and with future generations in mind. But how we view all those sustainability labels on dishes differs greatly from country to country. For example, the Dutch are very suspicious of this:only 16% believe that food labeled 'sustainable' is really sustainably produced. The Germans (17%) are also sceptical. With a percentage of 36%, Spaniards are a lot more positive in that area.
The number of people in the family who are in the kitchen every day also differs greatly per country. For example, 57% of Poles think it is quite normal for several members of the family to work with the preparation of the food, while in Spain and England in about 80% of the cases the lady or master of the house in the evening alone is cooking.
If you ask a Dutch person which foreign dishes he or she likes to cook, Italian cuisine is at the top, surprisingly followed by dishes from the Middle East. We Dutch cook quite quickly – 30 minutes on average per meal – and we eat a dish based on fresh ingredients at least three times a week. Finally, of all the countries surveyed, we dislike clearing up and washing dishes the most:no less than 19% of the Dutch surveyed always dread it.
