How do food companies use package design to communicate healthfulness? The present study addresses this question by investigating the most typical implicit package design elements used by food companies for their health‐positioned food products. Using a content analysis on the packaging design of 12 food product categories across two countries (Denmark and the United States), our findings indicate that (a) implicit package design elements (colors, imagery, material, and shape) differ between health‐positioned and regular products, and (b) these differences are product category specific rather than universal. Our results contribute to knowledge on how package design is used as a health communication tool.

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Purpose Do the package designs of organic products differ from those of conventional products and which package design elements are used more systematically in organic products? This paper aims to address this question by exploring the package design elements of organic products. The proposition is that in addition to package design elements that explicitly communicate and position a product as organic (i.e. organic labels and claims), other package design elements that implicitly convey an organic image are used. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a content analysis of the package designs from new product launches in four product categories (butter, cereals, fruit juice and milk) and across four markets (Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland). Findings The results show that the package designs of organic products differ from those of conventional products based on the presence of more paper material, white and green colours and images displaying nature. Research limitations/implications The findings support the notion that in addition to organic labels and claims, package design elements that implicitly communicate values associated with organic products, such as environmental friendliness and sustainability are used. Originality/value This study is among the few to explore package design elements for organic products. Understanding how the package designs of organic products are constructed can support managerial decisions on the use of the package as a means to better communicate and position organic products.

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This study investigates consumer response to food labels in an emerging market. More specifically, it measures the levels of awareness, objective and perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness of the most prominent food labels found in the Romanian market. An online survey was conducted with a convenience sample of 428 respondents (45.6% males of an average age of 30.6 years). Results revealed that for most respondents, awareness levels towards food labels are generally low, except for the Guideline Daily Amount (GDA) and the organic food labels. Objective understanding towards food labels was relatively high, especially towards those food labels that included a clear text element. Perceived understanding, perceived usefulness and perceived trustworthiness were found to be consistently high with regard to the GDA and the national organic food labels, while the European organic label scored lower. Finally, response to food labels was found to differ between aware and unaware respondents.