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Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample compared to the Australian adult population (n = 1558).
Source publication
Nutrition labelling can influence consumers’ assessments of food healthiness and their food choices. However, there is a lack of consensus about the optimal type and amount of nutrition information to provide on food packages. This study analysed consumers’ preferences for front-of-pack information relating to energy and various nutrients (sugar, s...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... addition to the voluntary Health Star Rating labelling system, the provision of a nutrition declaration panel on the back or side of packs displaying levels of energy, sugar, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, carbohydrate, and protein is mandatory for most foods [42]. Nutrients 2019, 11 , x FOR PEER REVIEW 3 of 15 groups of consumers. This is of substantial relevance in Australia, the context of the present study, because the voluntary Health Star Rating system exists in several different formats that can be selected by food companies for use on their packages [41]. ...Context 2
... socio-economic status (SES) respondents were intentionally over-sampled (representing half of the sample) because they have poorer dietary intakes, higher levels of obesity, and are less likely to read and use nutrition information provided on food labels [44,45], thus making them an especially important group to consider in nutrition information research. Comparisons between the characteristics of the study sample and the Australian adult population are presented in Table 1. 1 Socio-economic status determined via the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) [47]. Lower socio-economic status (SES) respondents were intentionally over-sampled. ...Context 3
... sharing the same letter within a row indicates a non-significant difference between segments (p-value > 0.05). The p-values for the differences in the mean scores of the indicator variables between segments are provided in the Supplementary Material (see Table S1). Sharing the same numbers within a column indicates a non-significant difference within segments on the indicator variables (p-value > 0.05). 1 Assessed on a 5-point scale. 2 Assessed on a 4-point scale. ...Similar publications
Background
Paediatric obesity poses dangers to children's short and long‐term health. Multi‐level ecological models posit how children's health behaviours are influenced by interpersonal relationships.
Objectives
To identify profiles of individual and interpersonal health behaviours and parenting skills among caregivers and their children with ele...
Food choice plays a vital role in people’s lives and well‐being, and this topic has received more research attention in recent years. The aims of the present research were to identify subgroups of participants who shared similar profiles of multiple motives for food choices, and examine differences across motive types on the well‐being of young and...
Physical activity (PA) facilitates eating behavior regulation, in part through self‐determined motivations to regulate PA and eating behaviors. However, different patterns of PA and sedentary behavior (SB) accumulation appear to have distinct effects on several health outcomes and might therefore be differently related to eating self‐regulation. Th...
Citations
... Such incongruities in disclosures, such as from missing or mislabeled information, are known to add to the growing consumer trust crisis in the food sector (Charlebois, Huck et al., 2016;Rupprecht, Fujiyoshi et al., 2020;Moreira, García-Díez et al., 2021). As voluntary elements crowd out mandatory elements, consumers increasingly look to and are nudged by more salient voluntary claims to inform decisions (Dana et al., 2019;Hallez et al., 2020;Mayhew et al., 2016;Neumayr & Moosauer, 2021). For example, when consumers trust poorly defined or misleading voluntary claims (as seen with the confusion around the allergen implications of sourcing elements like "vegan" and "plantbased"), not only is it damaging to consumer trust but it also may contribute to injury, or even death (Plant-Based Foods Association, 2022;USDA, 2022). ...
... Evidence suggests that younger generations, such as adults born after 1964 and especially adults born after 1981, increasingly look to voluntary information to inform food purchase decisions (FDA, 2016a;USDA, 2022). However, prior research indicates that simply supplying more information may not be effective, and in fact may lead to confusion and thus be viewed as deceptive or misleading (Benson et al., 2019;Dana et al., 2019;Khaleel et al., 2020;Peng et al., 2021). Therefore, food retail and manufacturing businesses have an interest in understanding how, when, and in what frequencies these marketing claims are applied, as do the multiple other stakeholders working to drive sustainable and/or healthy food systems. ...
... The within-store variance between product listings suggests that manufacturers may use the opportunity for additional marketing, however, the between-store variations for the same products suggest that retailers may intentionally promote some components, and intentionally or otherwise deemphasize others. Prior research suggests that simply increasing the frequency of marketing elements may lead to oversaturation and may even backfire rather than enhance product adoption (Benson et al., 2019;Dana et al., 2019;Khaleel et al., 2020;Peng et al., 2021). Given that the retailers included in this study all have public environmental pledges (Amazon, 2023;Fresh Direct, 2023;Holzer, 2020;Kroger, 2023;Safeway, 2023;Target, 2023;Walmart, 2023) and some, like Walmart, Target, and Amazon, also emphasize environmental sustainability with call-outs in their online retail architecture; and may, like Amazon, also conduct research to demonstrate the positive environmental impact of online shopping (Bezos, 2021), retailers may wish to examine the potential to optimize information, prevent over-saturation, and ensure consistent access to accurate product information in order to best facilitate and promote the adoption of sustainable and/or healthpromoting foods. ...
The market share of e‐commerce grocery is swiftly rising, but online product listings may present different environmental sustainability and public health information. We analyzed product marketing content available on retailer websites and product images, comparing plant‐based (PBFs) and animal‐sourced foods (ASFs). Over sixteen thousand marketing and labeling content observations were gathered from seven leading U.S. e‐commerce grocery retailers for top‐selling ASFs and closely‐matched PBFs (N = 134; n = 68 PBFs, n = 66 ASFs), including sustainability, mandatory information, health, sourcing, and hedonic/emotional claims. PBFs averaged 47 total claims, ASFs 28. On‐web claims were substantially higher than on‐pack (PBFs 34 on‐web, 12 on‐pack; ASFs 19 and nine, respectively). On‐web information for the same products varied considerably across retailers, especially for sustainability and mandatory information. PBFs presented mostly sustainability claims on‐pack and health claims on‐web. ASFs led emotional claims and made almost no sustainability claims across settings. Across settings, mandatory information compliance was greater among PBFs whereas ASFs notably lacked disclosures for foods with major allergens. Online grocery lacks standardization—businesses should regard differences as opportunities for marketing sustainable foods.
... However, so far, this is mostly done in the form of a (EUFIC, 2018). Surveys have shown that information about the nutritional quality of food is desired by many consumers, but in a form that is easier to understand and faster to read than the format that is currently used (generally a list of the amounts of nutrients contained in 100 g of the food) (Gregori et al., 2015;Dana et al., 2019). Indeed, there is good evidence from a large number of studies that the detailed listing of the nutrient and energy content is hard to understand and use for a majority of consumers, particularly those with a low level of education. ...
This detailed and comprehensive study examines nutrition and health in the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, presenting the six game-changing food systems actions proposed by the WHO and the progress of their implementation in the region.
The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region is a particularly complex place to study: an area of economic contrasts with changing dietary patterns and stark differences between high levels of malnutrition and a prevalence of overweight and obesity. As a result, actions to improve the nutritional situation of the population are urgently sought. The strategies explored in this book offer a unique opportunity to change food systems all over the world, addressing aspects including sustainable food production, the impact of marketing and labelling on behaviour, and the effect of global events such as climate change, war and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reshaping Food Systems is an essential read at a time when malnutrition in all its forms, including undernourishment, micronutrient deficiencies and overweight and obesity, pose a serious threat to global health, and is of particular interest for policymakers working in nutrition and public health.
... In addition, consumers prefer information on FOP compared to on BOP or, ideally, a combination of the two (Gomes et al., 2020;Mabotja et al., 2021). This may be because people on the one hand like to have access to FOP nutrition labels that display aggregated and easy to process nutritional information (de Morais Sato et al., 2019;Koen et al., 2018) but on the other hand also like to be provided with additional, more detailed nutritional information, especially on bad nutrients like sugar, SFA and sodium/salt (Dana et al., 2019). However, FOP nutrition labels are thought to be more useful and educative for others than oneself (Farrell et al., 2019). ...
... A Swiss study also suggested geographical variability in FOPNL preferences (probably related to local cultural differences), with residents from the French-speaking and urban areas being more in favour (Hagmann et al., 2018). However, another study failed to find significantly different preferences by populations of different Body Mass Index (BMI) or gender (Dana et al., 2019). ...
... Results show different trends in the overall knowledge and interest in using of FOPNL schemes among consumers from different socio-economic groups. While some studies found a higher interest in FOPNL information in lower socio-economic groups (Dana et al., 2019;Farrell et al., 2019), or a neutral effect of the socio-economic status in their support to the policy , most of the papers highlighted that the knowledge and interest in using FOPNL decreased in lower socio-economic population groups (Bryla, 2020;Correa et al., 2019;de Morais Sato et al., 2019;Patiño et al., 2019;Sarda et al., 2020). A study by Vargas-Meza et al. (2019a) reports that directive FOP nutrition labels such as warning labels and semidirective labels, such as HSR and MTL, seem to be especially preferred by consumers of low and middle income. ...
This addendum of the JRC Science for Policy report “Front-of-pack nutrition labelling schemes: a comprehensive review” provides an update of the former publication regarding the effects of front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) schemes on consumers' understanding, food purchases, diet and health, as well as food reformulation. This addendum was produced to further inform the Commission’s proposal for harmonised mandatory FOPNL announced in the Farm to Fork Strategy.
The previous report provided a review of the scientific literature regarding the effects of FOPNL on consumers, and food business operators. Emphasis was placed on consumer attention, preferences, and understanding of diverse FOPNL schemes, as well as FOPNL schemes’ effects on food purchases and their implications for diet and health. The report also discussed whether and to what extent the introduction of FOPNL schemes may affect producer efforts on food reformulation and innovation, highlighted potential unintended consequences of introducing FOPNL, and described knowledge gaps and directions for future research. The literature review was complemented by an overview of FOPNL schemes. In addition to an update and extension of the previous report with recent literature (published between May 2018 and 1 February 2021), the current report additionally addresses the effects of different labelling aspects (e.g. use of reference quantities, voluntary vs. mandatory implementation, combination of front-of-pack nutrition labels and claims on consumer understanding and consumer behaviour).
... MTL performed best, followed by warning labels, and Nutri-Score performed the worst. Previous work has demonstrated that consumers perceive that more information is better [33]. The present study reported parents were most in favor of MTL (42.4%), ...
The WHO recommends front-of-package labeling (FOPL) to help parents make healthier food choices for their children. But which type of FOPL resonates with parents in China? We performed a cross-sectional study to investigate parental preferences for five widely used formats of FOPL. A multi-stage cluster sampling method was applied to selected parents of students in primary and secondary schools in six provinces and municipalities from July 2020 to March 2021. A close-ended questionnaire was used to collect demographic information, parents’ preferences for five FOPL in three dimensions, perceptions of the importance of nutrients labeled on FOPL, and prepackaged foods that need FOPL most. Chi-square tests were used to examine the characteristics among five groups. The results showed that multiple traffic lights (MTL) was preferred by parents, followed by warning labels. Parents thought the most needed nutrients to label were sugar, salt, and total fat. The top three prepackaged foods to label were “baked food”, “milk and dairy products” and “sugar-sweetened beverages”. Our findings indicate that nutrient-specific FOPL formats with interpretive aids were preferred by Chinese parents. These new findings can help inform the planning and implementation of FOPL in China and help Chinese parents make healthier food choices.
... MTL performed best, followed by warning labels, and Nutri-Score performed the worst. Previous work has demonstrated that consumers perceive that more information is better [33]. The present study reported parents were most in favor of MTL (42.4%), ...
Citation: Cui, J.; Yan, R.; Astell-Burt, T.; Gong, E.; Zheng, L.; Li, X.; Zhang, J.; Xiang, L.; Ye, L.; Hu, Y.; et al. Types and Aspects of Front-of-Package
... In other studies consumers were asked which product they would buy [33][34][35][36][37], but this may be influenced by factors such as familiarity and liking of the product and cost of the product [31]. Other studies only asked which FOP label is preferred [32,38]. As demonstrated by our study, all FOP labels were rated as very useful, irrespective of their efficacy in helping the consumer choose the healthier option. ...
We tested, in an online survey, how well five different front-of-pack (FOP) labels helped Brazilian consumers make a healthier choice between two food products as compared to a no FOP label control. All 1072 respondents were randomly allocated to one of six groups 1) no FOP label (control), 2) ABIA label, 3) GGALIii Nutrient Profile label, 4) IdeC label, 5) Hybrid label or 6) Nutri-Score label and were all shown 9 food stimuli consisting of two products. The nutrient profiles of ABIA and Hybrid labels consider serving size of the food whereas the other three labels score per 100g. Respondents were asked which of the two products they perceived to be the healthier choice. Overall, the Hybrid and ABIA labels performed best, resulting in a statistically significantly higher percentage of correct answers as compared to the control for 9/9 and 8/9 of the food stimuli, respectively. Nutri-Score performed reasonably well and outperformed the control in 6/9 cases. The IdeC and GGALIii NP warning labels were least helpful, outperforming the control group only once and twice, respectively. In conclusion, the Hybrid and the ABIA FOP labels, two interpretative traffic light labels that use colours and provide nutritional information per serving, were best suited to help Brazilian consumers choose the healthier product. They especially outperformed the other FOP labels when serving sizes differed significantly or when deeper consideration of nutritional information was needed to make an informed decision.
... These results confirmed what demonstrated in previous studies, where consumers perceived that more information is better (Dana et al. 2019;Talati et al. 2019) and they trusted more FOPLs that were not summary-based . ...
Different Front-of-Pack (FOP) nutritional labels have been implemented in order to increase consumers' awareness of food nutritional quality and encourage healthier choices. However, few studies have analysed the effects of FOPLs on consumers' subjective understanding and liking across different socio-cultural contexts. This study tests the effect that the new enriched informative label NutrInform Battery and the summary label Nutri-Score have on subjective comprehension and liking across 2776 respondents of seven European countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain). Main effects regarding socio-demographic differences are also explored according to extant literature and highlighting significant effects of education and income. This study therefore extends the current research on subjective understanding and liking with a cross-country analysis. Findings suggest that NutrInform Battery can help consumers in understanding information in a relevant way, obtaining the highest performance across countries and showing limited impact of socio-cultural differences.
... The Health Star Rating (HSR), introduced in Australia and New Zealand in 2014, is a hybrid FoPL that includes both a summary indicator (in the form of a star rating that ranges from half a star to five stars) and nutrient-specific information. The hybrid format reflects a compromise between the need to provide interpretive information to enhance comprehension and speed of use (2,3) , consumers' desire for nutrient-specific information (9) and the food industry's reluctance to relinquish the reference intakes FoPL, despite the poor performance of this label format (for a review see Ref. (10)). Due to industry resistance to mandatory FoPLs that include colour, the HSR was introduced in Australia and New Zealand on a voluntary basis and in a monochrome format. ...
Objective
Many countries are considering the implementation of front-of-pack nutrition labels as a strategy to address high and increasing levels of overweight and obesity. A growing body of work demonstrates the superiority of labels that use colour and/or provide a summary indicator of product healthiness to enhance comprehension. However, previous studies have been confounded in determining the relative effectiveness of these two attributes by comparing labels that also differ in other ways. The present study tested labels that varied only on use of colour and/or reliance on a summary indicator across an international sample to provide unique insights into the relative importance of these attributes.
Design
Participants were randomised to see one of four variations of the Health Star Rating label that differed on the basis of use of colour and sole provision of a summary indicator.
Setting
Australia, Canada, China, India, New Zealand, the UK, and the US.
Participants
Adults (n=7545) in seven countries were exposed to online choice tasks requiring them to select a preferred breakfast cereal and then nominate the healthiest cereal.
Results
Overall, the coloured versions, and particularly the one with just a summary indicator, outperformed the monochrome version that included nutrient-specific information. However, there were some differences by country, with results from Canada and China indicating superior outcomes for monochrome labels and those providing nutrient-specific information.
Conclusions
The results highlight the importance of colour, but suggest the introduction of front-of-pack nutrition labels should be preceded by country-specific formative testing to identify potential differences in outcomes.
... 61 Consumers in many settings have been found to believe that sugar is the most important nutrient about which information should be provided on the front of packages. 62,63 However, the use of this information by consumers to influence their food choices is driven by the type of sugar label format. The results show that sugar label formats with warning signs, health warning messages, the TLL with "high in sugar" text, and graphical depiction of sugar content in teaspoons had the most positive effects on reducing the sugar content of consumers' food choices. ...
Context
Reducing population intakes of sugar has become a focus of many national and international public health policies. Packaged foods and beverages are key contributors to sugar intakes, and food labels can be an effective tool to reduce sugar consumption.
Objective
The aim of this systematic review was to examine the influence of sugar label formats on 2 outcomes: consumers’ understanding of sugar information, and the amount of sugar in consumers’ food choices.
Data Sources
Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, CAB Abstracts, SciELO, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched up until February 4, 2020.
Study Selection
Randomized experiments or quasi-experiments were included if they investigated the influence of sugar label formats on consumers’ understanding of sugar information or on the amount of sugar in consumers’ food choices.
Data Extraction
Data were extracted independently by 2 authors. Mean differences (MDs), standardized mean differences (SMDs), and odds ratios (ORs) plus 95%CIs were used to describe between-group differences for intervention label formats using random-effects models.
Results
Twenty-three studies, which examined 39 comparisons, were included. Label formats using “high in sugar” interpretative texts (traffic light labels [MD 41.6; 95%CI 37.9–45.4] and warning signs [OR 1.33; 95%CI 1.0–1.78]) were most effective in increasing consumers’ understanding of the sugar content in packaged foods. Health warning messages (SMD −0.32; 95%CI −0.43 to −0.22), graphical depictions of sugar content in teaspoons (SMD −0.32; 95%CI −0.48 to −0.17), and warning signs (SMD −0.24; 95%CI −0.35 to −0.13) were most effective for influencing consumers to choose products with lower sugar content.
Conclusions
Formats that provide an interpretation of sugar information, particularly those indicating if a product is high in sugar, were more helpful than only numerical information for improving consumer understanding and promoting food choices with less sugar.
Systematic Review Registration
PROSPERO registration number CRD42018081222.
... The labelling on the back of the package is often understood as not visible suf icient and tough to read so that studying them while shopping would be time-consuming (Grunert and Wills, 2007). Many consumers are interested in healthy nutrition and wish for a clear, easily understandable nutrition labelling of foods (Grunert et al., 2010;Dana et al., 2019). This is best achieved by labels and symbols that are positioned on the front of the package and visible, so-called front of package labels (FOPLs). ...
A The producer, selling and utilisation of packed nourishments have supported a preeminent lood lately in India. Food labelling is one of the vital population-based methods that can help customers make bene icial food selections by offering essential information about the food on the packaging. The present study aims to assess the impact of front of package label design on consumer understanding of nutrient amounts among residents of the urban area in Chennai. A cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban area in Chen-nai. Four hundred participants were studied by convenient sampling method. Participants were from 18 years age and above. The study duration was about three months. A pretested and semi-structured questionnaire was given, and the desired information was elicited. Data was then analysed with the help of statistical package for the social sciences software (SPSS). Chi-square test was done to test the signi icance (p<0.05). The mean age was of the participants was found to be 27.52 ± 11SD. About 63% of participants preferred packed foods over unpacked foods. And 68% of participants have nutritional knowledge and looked into nutrition facts on the back of the pack. Association of gender and socioeconomic class with knowledge of participants were found to be insigni icant. Association of occupation with the frequency of purchasing packed food products was signi icant. Many people look into the nutrition facts table and do not understand and fail to interpret. It is important to provide front of pack labels for better understanding of the consumers.
