Consumer evaluation, use and health relevance of health claims in the European Union

Hung, Yung; Verbeke, Wim

doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.01.002

Cited by 24 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Innovative food products with health-promoting components have gained growing interest within the research community, food industry, and consumers [1][2][3][4]. The gluten-free (GF) foods available in the market are nutritionally unbalanced, promoting high intake of energy, sugars, lipids, and a low intake of fibre, vitamins (B group and D), and minerals (Ca, Fe, Mg, and Zn) [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edible Brown Seaweed in Gluten-Free Pasta: Technological and Nutritional Evaluation

Fradinho

Raymundo

Sousa

et al. 2019

Foods

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Seaweed is a novel source of important nutritional compounds with interesting biological activities that could be processed into added-value products, namely gluten-free foods. In this study, two previously developed products obtained from Laminaria ochroleuca processing (liquid extract and a purée-like mixture) were incorporated in gluten-free (GF) pasta in order to develop functional products especially designed for the celiac population. The raw and cooked pastas were characterized in terms of their cooking quality parameters, nutritional composition, texture and rheological properties, and antioxidant activity. It was found that the developed GF pastas had similar mechanical and texture characteristics to the control. Both supplemented GF pastas presented a significantly (p < 0.05) higher fibre and mineral content than the control pasta.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Edible Brown Seaweed in Gluten-Free Pasta: Technological and Nutritional Evaluation

Fradinho

Raymundo

Sousa

et al. 2019

Foods

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“…The former was assessed using four items adapted from the General Health Interest scale [37]. The latter was measured by means of three items proposed in previous studies on NHCs [7,8]. In both cases we used a five-point agreement Likert scale (1 = not at all–5 = completely agree).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently the EU-funded FP project CLYMBOL examined a large number of HCs with reference to 10 EU countries (not including Italy), reaching interesting conclusions on the need for more targeted information and greater communication efforts to make claims easier to understand and effective in supporting informed choices by consumers [7,8,9]. Other research proposes a cross-country approach including Italy [10,11,12] while specific studies on Italian consumers are few and far between [13,14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Consumers Care about Nutrition and Health Claims? Some Evidence from Italy

Annunziata

Mariani

2019

Nutrients

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This study investigates Italian consumer knowledge and use of nutrition and health claims (NHCs). Six specific claims are examined on the basis of a web survey carried out on a sample of 504 consumers. Our results show that there is little attention to NHCs and their use is not widespread; objective knowledge of the selected claims is fairly scant, generating misinterpretation and confusion about their real meaning. K-means cluster analysis allowed us to identify three segments of consumers, characterized by different levels in attention and use frequency of NHCs, with a specific profile in terms of motivation and nutritional knowledge. Our results suggest the advisability of policy interventions and communication efforts which target the three segments with a view to achieving greater attention to NHCs. In conclusion, to boost knowledge concerning the actual meaning of the claims and their relation with a healthy diet, especially to reach non-users, information should be provided both simply and clearly, avoiding the use of complex scientific terminology.

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“…A survey of> 5000 consumers conducted as part of the CLYMBOL project found that from a list of 17 health claims, the claims ranked the most familiar and the claims ranked the least familiar were largely similar among 10 European countries (UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Slovenia, Czech Republic, France, Denmark, Greece and Lithuania) (Hung & Verbeke 2019). The highest level of health claim use while food shopping was reported by participants in Spain and Greece and the lowest was among consumers in The Netherlands.…”

Section: Differences In Perceptions Of Health Claims Between Europeanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing a digital toolkit to enhance the communication of health claims: The Health Claims Unpacked project

et al. 2020

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Consumer understanding and acceptance of health claims are influenced by a variety of factors including personal knowledge and familiarity with the information, characteristics of the product (such as the ingredients) and the way the claim is presented (e.g. wording and visual aids such as symbols). The official wording of authorised EU health claims is set by the European Commission (EC), though there is some flexibility, in that food companies can change the wording to aid consumer understanding of the claim as long as the original meaning is retained and the modified version does not mislead. An EIT Food‐funded project with the consumer‐facing title Health Claims Unpacked, consists of an international consortium aiming to develop a digital toolkit to investigate consumers’ responses to health claims and aid their understanding thereof. Developed firstly in English (and now also in other EU languages such as German, French and Polish), the toolkit is informed by research in linguistics, design, nutrition science, technology and behavioural economics as well as focus groups with consumers and interviews with the food industry. The format of the toolkit is an interactive web app comprising activities which are used to gather data regarding consumers’ responses to different kinds of linguistic, semiotic (signs and symbols) and marketing cues related to health claims and how these cues impact their understanding of the relationship between nutrients/food components and health, trust in the message and willingness to pay for products. The data will be used to provide information on the preferences of different demographic groups on the wording of health claims and to provide recommendations for stakeholders aiming to enhance the communication of health claims on food and drink labels.

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Consumer evaluation, use and health relevance of health claims in the European Union

Cited by 24 publications

References 55 publications

Edible Brown Seaweed in Gluten-Free Pasta: Technological and Nutritional Evaluation

Edible Brown Seaweed in Gluten-Free Pasta: Technological and Nutritional Evaluation

Do Consumers Care about Nutrition and Health Claims? Some Evidence from Italy

Developing a digital toolkit to enhance the communication of health claims: The Health Claims Unpacked project

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