Consumer understanding of sugars claims on food and drink products

Abstract

Consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims is a key aspect of current regulations in the European Union (EU). In view of this, qualitative and quantitative research techniques were used to investigate consumer awareness and understanding of product claims in the UK, focusing particularly on nutrition claims relating to sugars. Both research methods identified a good awareness of product claims. No added sugars claims were generally preferred to reduced sugars claims, and there was a general assumption that sweeteners and other ingredients would be added in place of sugars. However, there was little awareness of the level of sugar reduction and the associated calorie reduction in products when reduced sugars claims were made on pack. In focus groups, participants felt deceived if sugar reduction claims were being made without a significant reduction in calories. This was reinforced in the quantitative research which showed that respondents expected a similar and meaningful level of calorie reduction to the level of sugar reduction. The research also identified consumer confusion around the calorie content of different nutrients, including over-estimation of the calorie content of sugars. This is crucial to consumers' expectations as they clearly link sugar to calories and therefore expect a reduction in sugar content to deliver a reduction in calorie content.

Healthfulness and nutritional composition of Canadian prepackaged foods with and without sugar claims

“…These findings are largely in line with consumer perceptions that sweeteners would be used to replace sugar in products with sugar claims (Patterson et al 2012). Sweetener use may also explain the lower proportion of products with sugar claims that had excess free sugar levels.…”

“…Second, another area of concern from a public health perspective is that most products with sugar claims were lower in free sugar contents, but the reduction was not comparable for calories. Consumer research has shown that consumers expect similar and meaningful calorie reductions in products with sugar claims (Patterson et al 2012). This finding highlights a misalignment between consumer perceptions and regulatory requirements.…”

“…In regard to sugar claims, research has shown that many consumers assume a product is healthier when a "no added sugar" claim is present (Gorton et al 2010), and consumers also expect calorie reductions to accompany products with "reduced in sugar" and "no added sugar" claims (Patterson et al 2012). However, Canadian regulations allow sugar claims to be present on products regardless of their calorie content (Canadian Food Inspection Agency 2014b), as do many other countries and Codex standards (CODEX Alimentarius 2013).…”

Empirical analysis of implicit brand networks on social media

“…'Fan' pages on Facebook are an example of such communities, and form the basis for our study presented in this paper. Existing research has examined consumer interactions in online communities ( [7]), social network based communities for promoting engagement with a brand ( [22,8]), consumer motivations for participation, and effective means for developing consumer-brand relationships ( [30]). The topic of brand-brand relationships, however, has not received much attention in the literature -this is the focus of our study, using large-scale data, sentiment analysis and network analysis.…”

News in the world of nutrition: current challenges for clear communication

“…The subject of consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims is explored in a paper in this issue of Nutrition Bulletin by Patterson et al . (2012, pp.…”