Colour correct: the interactive effects of food label nutrition colouring schemes and food category healthiness on health perceptions

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of food label nutrition colouring schemes in interaction with food category healthiness on consumers' perceptions of food healthiness. Three streams of colour theory (colour attention, colour association and colour approach-avoidance) in interaction with heuristic processing theory provide consonant predictions and explanations for the underlying psychological processes. Design: A 2 (food category healthiness: healthy v. unhealthy) × 3 (food label nutrient colouring schemes: healthy = green, unhealthy = red (HGUR) v. healthy = red, unhealthy = green (HRUG) v. no colour (control)) between-subjects design was used. Setting: The research setting was a randomised-controlled experiment using varying formats of food packages and nutritional information colouring. Subjects: Respondents (n 196) sourced from a national consumer panel, USA. Results: The findings suggest that, for healthy foods, the nutritional colouring schemes reduced perceived healthiness, irrespective of which nutrients were coloured red or green (healthiness control = 4·86; healthiness HGUR = 4·10; healthiness HRUG = 3·70). In contrast, for unhealthy foods, there was no significant difference in perceptions of food healthiness when comparing different colouring schemes against the control. Conclusions: The results make an important qualification to the common belief that colour coding can enhance the correct interpretation of nutrition information and suggest that this incentive may not necessarily support healthier food choices in all situations.

World Heart Federation Policy Brief: Front-Of-Pack Labelling

“…However, conflicting valences/coding and colours can undermine the understanding of the information and weaken the impact on purchase intention or purchase decisions, so they perform worse than directive systems such as warning labels and summary scores. 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 …”

Nutrition information and front-of-pack labelling: issues in effectiveness

“…Understanding and correctly interpreting the nutrition information is another prerequisite, as highlighted by other papers in this issue. For example, Nyilasy et al (3) show that colour coding of information on the nutrition facts panel may even lead to adverse effects as the overall perception of a category as more v. less healthful can bias healthfulness evaluations of individual products, up to a point where healthy products are perceived as less healthy when the nutrition facts panel is colour-coded. Brand et al (4) demonstrate in a series of studies that other information presented on food packaging (i.e.…”

Effect of front-of-package labels on consumer product evaluation and preferences

“…The traffic light is a type of color-coded FOP label that incorporates color schemes to indicate high (red), medium (orange), or low (green) saturated fat, sugar, and sodium content (and sometimes total fat). Nyilasy et al (2016) found that color-coded nutrition information reduced consumer perception of the healthiness of foods. However, in some studies, this type of label increased consumer ability to find healthier food options and attention to food labels ( Campos et al, 2011 ; Kelly et al, 2009 ).…”

“…The proliferation of nutrition indicating icons and schemes has fueled the search for developing simple, standardized, and science-based criteria for communicating food products' nutritional content and relative healthfulness ( Smith et al, 2014 ; Bialkova and Trijp, 2010 ). Comprehension of these food labels is vital in communicating a healthy and nutritious diet and helps consumers recover from chronic illnesses like heart failure and other diseases, including obesity ( Nyilasy et al, 2016 ). The Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) display provides consumers with more detailed nutrient-specific information than the FOP.…”