Actual use of a front-of-pack nutrition logo in the supermarket: consumers’ motives in food choice

Abstract

Objective: A front-of-pack nutrition logo on products with relatively favourable product compositions might help consumers to make more healthful choices. Studies investigating actual nutrition label use in point-of-purchase settings are scarce. The present study investigates the use of the 'Choices' nutrition logo in Dutch supermarkets. Design: Adults were asked to complete a validated questionnaire about motivation for food choice and their purchased products were scored for the Choices logo after they had done their shopping. Setting: Nine supermarkets in The Netherlands. Subjects: A total of 404 respondents participated. Results: Of the respondents, 62 % reported familiarity with the logo. The motivations for food choice that were positively associated with actually purchasing products with the logo were attention to 'weight control' and 'product information'. The food choice motive 'hedonism' was negatively associated with purchasing products with the logo. Conclusions: This is the first study to investigate actual use of the Choices logo. In order to stimulate consumers to purchase more products with a favourable product composition, extra attention should be paid to hedonistic aspects such as the tastefulness and the image of healthy products.

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

“…Another limitation was that selfreported data in our virtual study might not be an accurate reflection of actual label use in real-life settings. For instance, measures of understanding in our study probably do not accurately duplicate real-life purchasing situations that involve time pressure and distracting factors forming part of marketing strategies (16,35,36) . However, use of web-based self-administered tools introduces a distance between the investigator and the participant, thereby encouraging the latter to provide evaluations with the benefit of hindsight (37) .…”

“…Acceptability, understanding and ensuing use are lower among men, the elderly, persons having low socio-economic status and individuals with little nutritional knowledge (3,7,(12)(13)(14) . Other features, including price, brand name, claims and ingredient lists, compete with nutrition labels for the attention of the consumer during purchasing; perception of nutrition labels thus differs according to consumer attention to such features (3,12,(14)(15)(16) .…”

The science on front-of-package food labels

“…Jones G & Richardson M (2007) (26) 15. Vyth EL, Steenhuis IH, Vlot JA et al (2010) (27) (44) package (14) . Consumers also felt that calorie information alone was not enough for them to make an informed choice; however, that study did not identify what additional information consumers would want (14) .…”

Health labelling can influence taste perception and use of table salt for reduced-sodium products

“…It has been suggested that health-conscious consumers are more likely to buy products with healthy choices logos compared with taste-focused consumers (10) . This may generate a potential unexpected side-effect of nutrient labels and healthy choice logos.…”