Nutrition labels: a survey of use, understanding and preferences among ethnically diverse shoppers in New Zealand

Objective: To identify patterns of perception of front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels and to determine social factors, nutritional knowledge and attention to packaging features related to such patterns. Design: Cross-sectional. Perception was measured using indicators of understanding and acceptability of three simple FOP labels (the 'Green Tick', the logo of the French Nutrition and Health Programme (PNNS logo) and 'simple traffic lights' (STL)) and two detailed formats ('multiple traffic lights' (MTL) and the 'colour range' logo (CR)). Associations of perception patterns with individual characteristics were examined using x 2 tests. Setting: Data from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort study. Subjects: A total of 38 763 adults. Results: Four perception patterns emerged. Poorly educated individuals were most often found in groups favouring simple formats. The 'favourable to CR' group had a high rate of men and older persons. Poor nutritional knowledge was more frequent in the 'favourable to STL' group, while individuals with substantial knowledge were proportionally more numerous in the 'favourable to MTL' group. The 'favourable to STL' group more frequently self-reported noting price and marketing characteristics during purchasing, while the 'favourable to MTL' and 'favourable to CR' groups declared more interest in nutritional information. The 'favourable to Green Tick and PNNS logo' group self-reported paying closer attention to claims and quality guarantee labels. Conclusions: The 'favourable to MTL' cluster was most frequently represented in our survey. However, simple FOP formats may be most appropriate for increasing awareness of healthy eating among targeted groups with poor nutritional knowledge and little interest in the nutritional quality of packaged foods.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception of front-of-pack labels according to social characteristics, nutritional knowledge and food purchasing habits

Méjean

Macouillard

Péneau

et al. 2012

“…Another reason why the participants in Gorton et al's study (16) did not use labels was that the participants did not understand the labels. According to Grunert et al's (13,14) conceptual framework of food label use, the relationship between the perception of labels and the actual and meaningful use of the information in the labels is influenced by factors associated with understanding the label.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, one should additionally consider a third group of determinants; namely, the motivational reasons people do not use labels. Gorton et al (16) asked their participants about their reasons for not using nutrition labels. In addition to not being interested in healthy eating, the participants mentioned not needing more information about food, not understanding labels and having priorities other than healthy eating (16) .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of health-related, motivational and sociodemographic aspects in predicting food label use: a comprehensive study

Hess

Visschers

Siegrist

2011

Objective: Previous studies focused on a limited number of determinants of food label use. We therefore tested a comprehensive model of food label use consisting of sociodemographic, health-related and motivating variables. These three predictor groups were chosen based on the previous literature and completed with new predictors not yet examined in a comprehensive study of frequency of label use. Design: We sent questionnaires to a random sample of households in the Germanspeaking part of Switzerland. Setting: The respondents filled in the questionnaire at home and returned it by mail. Subjects: We analysed the data of 1162 filled-in questionnaires (response rate 5 38 %). Of the respondents, 637 were women (55 %), and their mean age was 53?54 (SD 15?68) years. Results: Health-related variables were the most important group of predictors of label use, followed by motivating factors and sociodemographic variables. Placing importance on health, healthy eating and nutritional value of food, perceived vulnerability for diet-related diseases, nutrition knowledge, numeracy and gender were positively associated with frequency of food label use whereas shopping habits and seeing eating as something positive were negative predictors of frequency of label use. Conclusions: People's health consciousness should be raised in order to increase the frequency of food label use. Furthermore, it should be stressed that reading labels and keeping a healthy diet do not contradict 'good eating', and that both of these aspects can be combined with the help of food labels. Keywords Food label Nutrition table Comprehensive model Predictors of food label useNutrition labels on food products are often praised as an important instrument for health promotion and prevention of diseases associated with overweight and obesity (1)(2)(3)(4) . To find out how this preventive strategy can be used optimally and where the potential starting points for further improvement could be, it is very important to understand what determines use of food labels. This knowledge would help public health communicators to decide to whom and how they need to promote food label use. However, to our knowledge, existing studies investigating food label use have focused mainly on either sociodemographic and economic variables or on health-related factors. No study has systematically included factors inhibiting label use. The aims of the present study were, therefore, to provide a comprehensive framework of determinants of nutrition label use and to shed light on the motivators and inhibitors of nutrition label use. Thereby, we paid attention to three groups of potential determinants of label use: (i) a person's sociodemographic and economic background; (ii) healthrelated aspects; and (iii) factors which discourage people from using food labels (see Fig. 1). We now discuss the relevant factors of each of these three determinants, based on previous studies. One difficulty of studying label use is the number of different labels in the different international marke...

“…The need for a 'real life' experimental test of front-of-pack nutrition label performance A considerable body of research on front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labelling has appeared in Public Health Nutrition over the last five years (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8) . In the editorial of a recent issue (volume 16, issue 3) devoted to this topic, Lachat and Tseng noted that the majority of extant research on FOP label systems consisted of reviews and empirical research exercises that were primarily developmental in nature (8) .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer product evaluation and choice: an experimental study

Hamlin

McNeill

Moore

2014

Objective: The present research was an experimental test that aimed to quantify the impact of two dominant front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional label formats on consumer evaluations of food products that carried them. The two FOP label types tested were the traffic light label and the Percentage Daily Intake. Design: A 4 × 5 partially replicated Latin square design was used that allowed the impact of the FOP labels to be isolated from the effects of the product and the consumers who were performing the evaluations. Setting: The experiment was conducted on campus at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Subjects: The participants were 250 university students selected at random who met qualifying criteria of independent living and regular purchase of the products used in the research. They were not aware of the purpose of the research. Results: The presence of FOP labels led to significant and positive changes in consumer purchase intentions towards the products that carried them. These changes were not affected by the nature of FOP labels used, their size or the product nutritional status (good/bad) that they were reporting. Conclusions: The result is consistent with the participants paying attention to the FOP label and then using it as an adimensional cue indicating product desirability. As such, it represents a complete functional failure of both of these FOP label types in this specific instance. This result supports calls for further research on the performance of these FOP labels before any move to compulsory deployment is made.