Dissecting Qualified Health Claims: Evidence From Experimental Studies

Abstract

This paper reviews recent consumer studies evaluating comprehension of a novel form of food labeling, qualified health claims, now permitted by FDA. The joint goals of qualified health claims are to encourage firms to make accurate, science-based claims about the health benefits of their products while helping consumers prevent disease and improve their health through sound dietary decisions using enhanced nutrition information. This paper examines whether consumers can differentiate between multiple levels of health claims and determines if a front label visual aid helps consumer understanding. Results of experimental consumer attitude studies are presented which suggest that people do not perceive significant differences between the three levels of qualified claims and traditional (unqualified or SSA) health claims. An additional experiment suggests that a visual aid (report card) may be an important device to help consumers distinguish between the levels of health claims. However, thought-listing data suggests that consumers use the report card to draw inferences about overall product quality rather than the strength of scientific evidence supporting the health claim. Implications of these findings for the future regulatory oversight and marketing of functional food products are discussed.

Nutrition communication: consumer perceptions and predicting intentions

“…Hooker and Teratanavat (28) investigated whether the type of evidence presented to substantiate health claims had an effect on people's perceptions. In the USA, four different types of claims are allowed: A, Significant scientific agreement; B, good to moderate scientific agreement; C, low level of scientific agreement and D, very low level of scientific agreement.…”

Characteristics of consumers using ‘better for you’ front-of-pack food labelling schemes – an example from the Australian Heart Foundation Tick

“…While health claims on food packaging have the potential to help consumers make healthier choices (21,22) and survey reports show that a majority of consumers use some form of nutrition label information at least occasionally (14,23) , studies of consumers in realworld shopping environments report much lower rates of use (2,24) . So, while consumers may see health claims and understand them, they may not actually base their final purchase decision on this information.…”

International legislation on nutrition and health claims

“…As described in section 'Types of claims'. however, consumer research suggests that in spite of a legal differentiation between these claims, consumers are often not capable of differentiating between these various types of claims on food products (Hooker and Teratanavat, 2008;Verbeke et al, 2009;Verhagen et al, 2010;Williams, 2005). In addition, consumers do not seem to be aware of the approval process for claims prior to marketing, while such an assessment and approval of health claims by an independent organisation is requested by consumers (Gray, 2013).…”

“…All claims supported by such a lower level of substantiating evidence must reflect this by carrying some type of disclaimer. These graded health claims are permitted with a view to stimulating firms to perform research and accurately market the benefits of functional ingredients; and to help consumers prevent diseases and improve their health by making informed decisions based on accurate information (Crowe and Francis, 2013;Hooker and Teratanavat, 2008). For the industry, the approval of graded health claims decreases the length and strictness of the approval process (Hooker and Teratanavat, 2008).…”