The Impact of Nutrition Labelling on Customer Buying Intention and Behaviours in Fast Food Operations: Some Implications for Public Health

Abstract

This research examines customers’ intention to buy depending on their use of nutrition labelling (NL) in fast food operations (FFOs) and their intention to visit and recommend these FFOs with nutrition-labelled menus. The research model draws on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to examine customers’ intentions to buy from nutrition-labelled menus and their behaviour of visiting and recommending to others FFOs with nutrition-labelled menus. To achieve this purpose, a self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to and collected from a random sample of customers at FFOs in Greater Cairo, Egypt, i.e., McDonald’s and Subway. The results from the structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS software indicated positive and direct significant paths from the constructs of the TPB, except for customers’ attitude, to customer intention to buy nutrition-labelled menu items. The results also showed a positive significant impact of customers’ intention on their behaviour of visiting and recommending FFOs featuring nutrition-labelled menus. The findings showed that there is an awaking of nutritional awareness among fast-food customers and that providing nutritional information on fast-food menus will affect their purchasing intention in the future by encouraging them to make healthy food choices. Theoretical implications for scholars and managerial implications for FFOs, especially in relation to public health in general and healthy food choices in particular, are explained and discussed.

Adopting an Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour to Examine Buying Intention and Behaviour of Nutrition-Labelled Menu for Healthy Food Choices in Quick Service Restaurants: Does the Culture of Consumers Really Matter?

“…These findings support previous research studies [22][23][24] where health consciousness significantly predicts consumers' intentions to purchase organic menus or local food items. In addition, the results support the TPB framework [15] and previous research [14] where the intention to buy NLMs significantly predicts intention to recommend NLM among consumers in both countries (the KSA and the UK). Moreover, the results confirmed a mediating role for intention to buy NLM in the relationship between the three antecedents (ATT, SNs, PBC), health consciousness and the intention to recommend NLMs among consumers in the KSA and the UK.…”

“…Additionally, consumers' purchase intentions predict their actual buying behaviour of state-branded products. A recent study adopted TPB to examine customers' intentions to buy nutrition-labelled items in fast food operations [14]. The results showed that only SNs and PBC significantly affect consumers' intentions to buy NLM.…”

“…However, "the longterm effect of calorie labelling on fast-food purchases is unclear" [10]. There is a paucity of research on the factors that make consumers use nutrition and calorie information to make a buying intentions or behaviour in QSRs [14]. Sobaih and Abdelaziz [14] called for further research, arguing that "future researchers could examine this issue [the culture] by adopting an international comparative study between counties with different cultural dimensions to examine whether culture moderates customer choices of health foods" (p. 13).…”

“…This research is a response to the call for more studies for understanding consumers' buying intentions and behaviour of healthy food choice based on NLMs provided at QSRs, as recommended by recent studies from Petimar et al [10] and Sobaih and Abdelaziz [14]. This research adopted an extended model by investigating the three determinants of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) [15] along with health consciousness on consumers' intentions to buy NLMs in QSRs for supporting healthy food choices.…”

Predicting willingness to consume healthy brand foods using the theory of planned behavior: the role of nutritional literacy

“…Nutritional labels impact the consumer and the social environment, especially when consuming healthy products. For instance, when dining out, the people who matter to the consumer prefer to select a menu item that provides nutritional information ( 86 ). Similarly, Sousa et al ( 87 ) found that customers’ intentions to purchase products with nutritional labels were significantly related to their subjective norms, indicating that consumers are influenced by their peers when using food labels to select healthy foods.…”