Consumer Perception of the Healthfulness of Ultra-processed Products Featuring Different Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labeling Schemes

Nutrition Labeling Schemes and the Time and Effort of Consumer Processing

“…[1][2][3]44]. As of today, only Chile uses warning messages, but the results of this research suggest that more countries should use warning messages, which is consistent with previous findings [11][12][13][14]. The use of warning messages instead of other FOP nutrition labeling schemes is a cost-effective way to inform consumers of the quantity of sugar, saturated fat, sodium and calories in each product, as warning messages improve the capacity to recognize an unhealthy food.…”

“…Previous studies have shown that warnings messages (rather than other FOP nutrition labeling schemes such as GDA, the traffic-light system, etc.) improved consumers' ability to correctly identify a less-healthy product [11][12][13][14]. This study provides another advantage of warning messages, that warning messages are processed more easily than nutritional tables and GDA (the most-used FOP nutrition labeling scheme in the world [38]).…”

“…Product labels influence consumer processing [11]. Due to the variety of FOP nutrition labeling schemes, it should be expected that different FOP nutrition labeling schemes differ in their effects on consumer processing [12][13][14][15]. In the few seconds that consumers spend selecting food products they do not process all the information available on product labels [16].…”

“…Hence: Recent studies in Uruguay and Brazil (both countries with concerning numbers of overweight citizens) have shown that warning messages (rather than other FOP nutrition labeling schemes such as GDA, the traffic-light system, etc.) improved consumers' ability to correctly identify a less-healthy product [11][12][13][14]. Fifteen countries have expressed interest in the Chilean regulation and have requested information to consider the warning messages in their regulatory projects [10].…”

A citizen perspective on nutritional warnings as front-of-pack labels: insights for the design of accompanying policy measures

“…For this reason, lower socio-economic groups are particularly vulnerable to these foods due to the high relative importance they attach to price in their decision-making process, their lack of literacy needed to interpret marketing claims and their lack of nutritional knowledge (16,(18)(19)(20) . In this sense, recent research has shown that adults and children from low socio-economic level have a more positive attitude towards and are less critical towards labels of ultra-processed foods than those from middle and high socio-economic level (20,21) . This situation requires attention of policy makers as it constitutes a case of vulnerable consumer groups not being able to make informed choices (22) .…”