A consumer is a person who buys and uses goods and services, the final link in the food chain. Consumer choices drive the food system: demand shapes what farmers grow, manufacturers make, and retailers stock. Consumer protection law guards shoppers against unsafe food, misleading labels, and unfair practices, while consumer organisations test products and campaign for better standards. Understanding consumer behaviour, how price, habit, marketing, and values interact, is essential to improving diets, since information alone rarely changes what people buy. The consumer is both the beneficiary and the engine of the food economy.