Consumers’ Perceptions of Five Front-of-Package Nutrition Labels: An Experimental Study Across 12 Countries

Zenobia Talati,Simone Pettigrew,Chantal Julia,Serge Hercberg,Manon Egnell

doi:10.3390/nu11081934

Abstract

Consumers’ perceptions of five front-of-pack nutrition label formats (health star rating (HSR), multiple traffic lights (MTL), Nutri-Score, reference intakes (RI) and warning label) were assessed across 12 countries (Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, the UK and the USA). Perceptions assessed included liking, trust, comprehensibility, salience and desire for the label to be mandatory. A sample of 12,015 respondents completed an online survey in which they rated one of the five (randomly allocated) front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) along the perception dimensions described above. Respondents viewing the MTL provided the most favourable ratings. Perceptions of the other FoPLs were mixed or neutral. No meaningful or consistent patterns were observed in the interactions between country and FoPL type, indicating that culture was not a strong predictor of general perceptions. The overall ranking of the FoPLs differed somewhat from previous research assessing their objective performance in terms of enhancing understanding of product healthiness, in which the Nutri-Score was the clear front-runner. Respondents showed a strong preference for mandatory labelling, regardless of label condition, which is consistent with past research showing that the application of labels across all products leads to healthier choices.

Highlights

In response to rising rates of obesity around the world [1], front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) are increasingly being applied to pre-packaged foods to inform consumers about the nutritional value of these foods and help them to make healthier choices [2,3,4]
Other findings from this dataset found the Nutri-Score to be most useful in assisting consumers to accurately identify the healthiest food from a choice set [33]. This is discrepant with the present results showing that this FoPL was perceived to not provide enough information and to be harder to understand. These results suggest that consumers could benefit from education on the credibility of highly interpretive FoPLs such as the Nutri-Score to foster trust in the system, motivate consumers to make use of it and bring perceptions in line with performance
The results suggest that interpretive aids such as colour are viewed favourably by consumers but oversimplified FoPL formats risk excluding information that is desired by consumers and as a consequence being less trusted

Summary

Introduction

In response to rising rates of obesity around the world [1], front-of-pack labels (FoPLs) are increasingly being applied to pre-packaged foods to inform consumers about the nutritional value of these foods and help them to make healthier choices [2,3,4]. Of the different FoPL formats currently in use around the world, most can be classified as reductive or interpretive [4,10]. Reductive FoPLs provide factual information about a food (such as the amounts of key nutrients within a food) with minimal interpretation (such as the food’s contribution to an adult’s recommended daily intake). Interpretive FoPLs may contain similar information (i.e., amounts of key nutrients) and use aids like colour to indicate the healthiness of the food.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion