Abstract
Research on front-of-pack labels (FOPLs) demonstrated that Nutri-Score is one of the most promising FOPLs regarding healthfulness estimation accuracy. Nevertheless, as consumers are exposed to both the Nutri-Score and the mandatory Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) in the supermarket, it is key to understand if and how both labels interact. This study investigates the contribution of Nutri-Score and NFP regarding healthfulness estimation accuracy, whether this impact differs depending on the product, and what role visual attention plays. We set up an eye-tracking experiment in a controlled setting in which 398 participants rated the healthfulness of 20 products. The results confirmed the positive impact of the Nutri-Score on healthfulness estimation accuracy, though the impact was larger for equivocal (i.e., difficult to judge) products. Interestingly, NFP either had no effect (compared to a package without Nutri-Score or NFP) or a negative effect (compared to a package with Nutri-Score alone) on healthfulness estimation accuracy. Eye-tracking data corroborated that ‘cognitive overload’ issues could explain why consumers exposed to Nutri-Score alone outperformed those exposed to both Nutri-Score and NFP. This study offers food for thought for policymakers and the industry seeking to maximize the potential of the Nutri-Score.
Highlights
The global prevalence of obesity has increased to pandemic rates over the last five decades [1,2,3]
Since we were mainly interested in visual attention for the Nutri-Score label on the product and/or the Nutrition Facts Panels (NFP) under the product, we focused on two key metrics: Fixation count and total fixation duration
To answer our second research question (RQ2), the findings show that the impact of the Nutri-Score label and the NFP was different for different types of products: The impact of the Nutri-Score was largest for products that are identified as equivocal, while the impact of the NFP was only significant for products with a clear and simple NFP
Summary
The global prevalence of obesity has increased to pandemic rates over the last five decades [1,2,3]. Given that poor diet quality is one of the most important modifiable risk factors for obesity and non-communicable diseases [5,6], the World Health Organization (WHO) repeatedly emphasizes the importance of taking measures that encourage populations to make healthier food choices. Consumers have to identify which products are the healthier ones and which are the less healthy ones. It is crucial that consumers are well informed about the nutritional quality of food products [7]. A key intervention to inform consumers and improve the healthfulness of consumers’ diets is nutritional labeling [8]. For many years the Nutrition Facts Panels (NFP), usually appearing on the back or side of the package, provide mandatory nutritional information about products [9]. Extensive research has shown that the NFP contains technical and numerical information, which is perceived as complex and confusing and makes the information too effortful for consumers to process [10,11,12]
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