Innovation in Nutrition Labeling: Consumer Perceptions of the Usefulness of Front of Pack Labeling Schemes

Abstract

The managerial responsibilities and resources required to implement the methods of nutrition labeling of foods lie with the whole food system. The use of back-of-pack (BOP) nutrition labeling in the form of the nutrition declaration is widespread in commercial practice, and in the EU it is even mandatory for most products. Detailed numerical information on the nutrient content of the product makes it difficult for consumers to understand. Through a quantitative exploratory research, this paper focuses on the descriptive analysis of different voluntary front of pack (FOP) labeling schemes, assessing their impact on consumers' perception of the nutritional quality of products and determining their usefulness in terms of understanding the declared nutritional information. We are interested in increasing the usefulness of these systems in the context of a low level of consumer understanding of nutritional information (especially BOP), as indicated by the results obtained. This will facilitate the process of selecting more nutritionally balanced products to meet the need for education and healthy lifestyles. We start from the premise that the harmonization of front of pack labeling schemes, which tend to take the form of graded indicators, could be considered a necessary and useful innovative solution in the process of selecting and comparing food products on the market according to their declared nutritional profile. A single, voluntary, interpretative traffic light system, as the EU proposes, would harmonize the nutritional labeling of foods, as a condition for putting social policy on consumer nutrition education into practice, but also for facilitating the reformulation and promotion of healthier foods, beyond the controversies over the discrimination of some of them.