Abstract
Despite the fact that front-of-pack nutrition labels such as health claims and symbols have received growing attention in consumer behavior research, comprehensive conclusions could not yet be drawn to develop concrete policy actions, owing to the complexity of the subject and a constantly changing market environment. In this study, evidence-based policy recommendations and communication guidelines have been derived from the findings of the EU FP7 project CLYMBOL (“Role of health-related CLaims and sYMBOLs in consumer behavior”, Grant Agreement 311963), and have been evaluated and prioritized by European stakeholders using a three-round Delphi method. A moderate level of consensus was achieved and results suggest that policy priority should focus on ways to improve consumer motivation and interest in healthy eating. Consumers’ interest in healthy eating could be increased by adopting appropriate communication strategies such as using innovative ways to communicate the importance of healthy eating, which may aim to change the possible negative association between healthiness and tastiness. The highest-rated finding was related to consumers’ favorable attitude towards health claims with shorter and less complex messages and health symbols with a visible endorsement. Meanwhile, there was a clear consensus that health claims need to be scientifically substantiated and credible but phrased without using overly complex scientific wordings, in order to be meaningful for consumers. Furthermore, stakeholders from academia and industry believe that consumer awareness about existing health claims should be increased. The identified policy recommendations and communication guidelines stem from recent empirical evidence and provide useful insights that guide future policy development aligning consumer protection issues as well as public health and food marketing communication interests.
Highlights
Effective public policies are essential to improve food environments for consumers
Considering the results and evidence drawn from all earlier CLYMBOL studies, an exhaustive list of research findings, policy recommendations, and communication guidelines has been established and presented in Supplementary Material S3
The policy recommendations and communication guidelines are arranged according to the findings where they were derived from
Summary
Effective public policies are essential to improve food environments for consumers. EuropeanUnion (EU) legislation (EC 1924/2006) has harmonized the use of health claims and symbols with more clearly established rules and built-in safeguards against misleading consumers (EuropeanCommission, 2006). Union (EU) legislation (EC 1924/2006) has harmonized the use of health claims and symbols with more clearly established rules and built-in safeguards against misleading consumers With public health goals in mind, health claims and symbols are expected to support consumers in making more informed and healthier food choices, as well as foster industry competitiveness. The role of health claims and symbols in consumer behavior has received increasing attention in research [3,4], comprehensive conclusions for meaningful policy recommendations could not yet be drawn, due to complexity of the subject and a constantly changing market environment [5,6]. The EU-funded FP7 project CLYMBOL has envisaged providing wide-ranging assessments of the role of health claims and symbols on food and drink products in consumers’ food choices, and to derive evidence-based implications for future policy development and communication.
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