Munchy Monster: Using video gaming to objectively evaluate front‐of‐pack labelling strategies for school‐aged children

Abstract

Marketers have long targeted children in an attempt to influence food purchases. This is not the case for regulators; nutrition information is complex, using decimal places, percentages, and units of measure. It has been suggested that the approach to nutrition labelling in the United States is difficult for some adults to interpret, let alone children. This is unfortunate as children influence purchase decisions and childhood is a critical time for developing long-lasting eating habits. An alternative approach to traditional nutrition labelling employs the use of front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels. FOPs provide simplified, truncated nutrition information on the front of packages.The objective of this work was to evaluate how four different FOP label designs impact the ability of children to assess product healthfulness and time to assessment. Children aged 6 to 10 played a video game where they fed "Munchy Monster" the healthier of two products. The principal display panels (PDPs) of two mock brands of cereal appeared together on a computer screen, and children were instructed to feed Munchy Monster the healthier of the two options as quickly as they could by pressing one of two arrows. Across trials, the FOP format varied in a 2 (colour/no colour) × 2 (facial icon/no facial icon) factorial design. Within a trial, both cereals presented the same FOP format, with one healthier than the other. Two groups of children participated in trials; those in the uninstructed group were simply asked to feed the monster the healthier cereal (n = 38); the "minimally instructed group" (n = 41) was told that "this part of the package" (the FOP) might help you decide which is healthier." Accuracy of selection and time to selection were dependent variables. With regard to accuracy, both groups showed evidence of a significant face by colour interaction (P < .001), with the colour or facial icon presence improving accuracy. For uninstructed participants, accuracy of selection significantly improved with any combination of colour or facial icon, and all other labels were improved when accuracy was compared with the treatments with no face/no colour, but none containing colour and/or facial icons differed from one another. Minimally instructed participants were also more accurate in identifying the healthier product for all FOP label designs compared with the no face/no colour condition (P < .001). However, the trials with FOPs including both face with colour also performed better than the face with no colour label, P = .001. A main -This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

The effect of food packaging elements on children’s food choices and intake: A systematic review

“…There are differences in the date of the studies (the range is from 2010 to 2020). The years with the most publications were 2014 ( 26 – 28 ) and 2019 ( 29 – 32 ), with an increasing trend in recent years. The regions where the studies were conducted are detailed below: North America: USA ( 29 , 33 – 39 ), Canada ( 40 ); Europe: UK ( 41 , 42 ), Belgium ( 32 , 43 ), Iceland ( 44 ); South America: Brazil ( 31 ), Guatemala ( 27 ), Uruguay ( 45 ); Australia ( 26 , 28 ), and Asia: Indonesia ( 30 ).…”

“…The years with the most publications were 2014 ( 26 – 28 ) and 2019 ( 29 – 32 ), with an increasing trend in recent years. The regions where the studies were conducted are detailed below: North America: USA ( 29 , 33 – 39 ), Canada ( 40 ); Europe: UK ( 41 , 42 ), Belgium ( 32 , 43 ), Iceland ( 44 ); South America: Brazil ( 31 ), Guatemala ( 27 ), Uruguay ( 45 ); Australia ( 26 , 28 ), and Asia: Indonesia ( 30 ). In terms of experimental design, most of the articles present a Between-Subjects design (55% of the studies) ( 26 , 28 , 29 , 31 , 33 – 36 , 39 , 40 , 42 ); the rest present a Within-Subjects design (35%) ( 27 , 32 , 37 , 38 , 43 – 45 ); a single article presents a Mixed-measures design ( 41 ) and another a quasi-experimental design ( 30 ).…”

“…These interventions were educational, and their main objective was to teach children about nutrition and healthy eating habits. Three of them are focussed on instructing children to read and interpret Nutrition Labelling properly and to get them to make an appropriate and autonomous choice of the foods they will acquire and consume ( 29 , 30 , 36 ). One of them, using short nutrition lessons and different marketing techniques such as colour, cartoons, and promotions, tries to encourage children to consume fruits and vegetables ( 35 ).…”

“…The Marketing Techniques on Packaging found in the studies, according to their prevalence, are: Cartoon ( 27 , 33 , 35 , 37 , 41 , 44 , 45 ), Nutrition Claims ( 26 , 28 , 38 , 39 , 45 ), Serving Suggestion Image ( 32 , 42 , 43 ), Branded Packaging ( 35 , 40 ), Colour ( 35 , 40 ), Celebrities ( 28 ), In-product Promotions ( 34 ), Premium Offers ( 28 ), Product Name ( 33 ), Health Claim ( 39 ), and General Claim ( 39 ). For Nutrition Labelling, FOPL —especially Traffic Light System ( 29 – 31 , 45 ), Nutritional Warnings ( 31 ), Guideline Daily Amount ( 45 ), and one of them, with an undetermined type ( 36 )— followed by FACTS ( 30 , 36 ) stands out. In the experimental design of the articles, these elements are studied in some cases in isolation and others in comparison with other elements.…”

“…With regard to Nutrition Labelling, some inconsistency has been found in the results of the articles using FOPL. While two articles with high methodological quality found a positive impact on food choice in children ( 29 , 30 ), another two, one of them with high methodological quality ( 45 ), and another with a high risk of bias ( 31 ) did not find a significant impact on food choice. However, it seems to help, if the children have more excellent knowledge about the product’s healthiness.…”