Abstract
This paper aims to identify selected antecedents of the importance attached to salt content information (ISCI) placed on food labels, on the basis of a representative survey of 1051 Polish consumers. The study was conducted with the use of the CAWI (Computer Assisted Web Interviews) method in 2018. Quota sampling was applied with reference to the following five criteria: sex, age, education, place of living (urban and rural areas), and region. In a multiple regression model, ISCI depends on the respondent’s: sex, age, evaluation of the quantity of nutrition claims, importance attached to nutrition claims, willingness to pay a price premium for products with nutrition claims, attention paid to health and nutrition claims, agreeing with the opinion that unreliable nutrition claims are a serious problem, evaluation of healthiness of one’s diet, self-rated knowledge about healthy nutrition, buying organic food, and reading front-of-package (FOP) labels during and after the purchase. The strongest effects on the importance attached to salt content information on the food packaging were displayed by the importance of nutrition claims, attention paid to nutrition and health claims, respondent’s age, FOP label reading at home, and agreeing that the use of unreliable nutrition claims is a serious problem.
Highlights
Consumer preferences for information vary widely and an optimal policy should provide different labels for different market segments
The strongest effects on the importance attached to salt content information on the food packaging were displayed by the importance of nutrition claims, attention paid to nutrition and health claims, respondent’s age, FOP label reading at home, and agreeing that the use of unreliable nutrition claims is a serious problem
The importance attached to salt content information on food packaging was analyzed with the use of ANOVAs based on selected characteristics of respondents: place of living, household size, number of children in the household, respondent’s education level, occupational status, household income, evaluation of the quantity of nutrition claims, and the most important information during the first purchase of a food product (Table 2)
Summary
Consumer preferences for information vary widely and an optimal policy should provide different labels for different market segments. Increasing the amount of information may reduce its effectiveness among the low-income consumers it is intended to help [1]. Food consumers understand and value recognizable logos more than the information found on nutritional composition labels [2]. Front-of-package labels that include content descriptors are more effective in helping consumers to select lower-sodium products, and traffic light labels, which incorporate content descriptors and color coding, turned out most effective at helping participants select low-sodium products [3]. Traffic light and red stop sign warning labels significantly reduced sodium ordered compared with a control. Warning labels increased knowledge about high sodium content [4]
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