Strength of health‐related claims and their perceived advantage

Abstract

Consumers (n ¼ 958) were asked to evaluate whether product-related health claims in foods were either advantageous or disadvantageous, in their opinion. Claims were made for six functional components and two control products, namely low salt content and a high-pressure technique and the strength of claims varied between four intensity levels. In general, all claims were perceived as neutral or as advantageous. Increasing the strength of the claim did not automatically increase the perceived benefit. Gender, trust in different information sources and the frequency of use of so-called functional foods affected the perceived benefit. Women perceived the claims to be more beneficial than men did. Trustful respondents perceived the claims as more advantageous than did sceptical respondents, and the users of functional foods perceived health claims to be more advantageous than did non-users. In addition, personal motivation affected the perception of the claims. With less familiar functional components, the strength of the claim increased the perceived benefit, whereas with familiar components, claims mentioning the reduced risk or prevention of a disease did not increase the perceived advantage.

Perception of Health Claims Among Nordic Consumers

“…Once an active ingredient has become familiar with consumers as a food ingredient with positive health effects, the naming of that ingredient may, without additional information, trigger health-related associations in the mind of the consumer. From the consumer perception point of view, a mere ingredient claim may then act as a health claim; this supports the earlier findings by Urala et al (2003) in which familiar nutritional compounds were perceived as having the same benefit value as claims explaining their functions.…”

Consumers’ changing attitudes towards functional foods

“…Earlier studies have reported that Finns have quite positive attitudes towards functional foods. Finnish (n = 958) perceived health claims associated with a daily used product as being neutral or as being beneficial (Urala, Arvola, & Lähteenmäki, 2003). Bech-Larsen and Grunert (2003) found that Finnish have a more positive attitude towards functional foods than Danes or Americans.…”

Some like it healthy: Can socio-demographic characteristics serve as predictors for a healthy food choice?

“…The literature interprets this phenomenon by associating it to various factors of the sociocultural environment, such as market exposure to health claims, trust in authorities, and familiarity with the carrier and the ingredient (Annunziata & Vecchio, 2011;Grunert et al, 2009;Saba et al, 2010). Conflicting results are recorded for gender, in relation to which several authors find a greater interest among women, while others observe no significant differences between the sexes (Ares & Gámbaro, 2007;Dean et al, 2007;Urala, Arvola, & Lähteenmäki, 2003;Urala & Lähteenmäki, 2007). The scenario for age also turns out somewhat unclear.…”