Abstract
Natural foods are important to consumers, yet frustrating to producers due to the lack of a formal definition of “natural”. Previous work has studied how consumers define naturalness and how they rate the naturalness of various products, but there is a gap in knowledge relating to how color and flavor additives impact perceptions. The objective of this study was to understand how colorants and flavorants on ingredient statements affect perceptions of naturalness. An online survey was launched in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to determine how consumers perceive products with ingredient statements containing different combinations of artificial and natural colors and flavors when shown with and without the product identity. Results showed that consumers look at the whole product primarily to make decisions about naturalness, but also consider other factors. Products derived from plants and products with natural colors and flavors were perceived to be the most natural. Artificial flavors may be more acceptable than artificial colors due to negative health perceptions and labeling rules associated with colors. Additionally, factors like ingredient familiarity and processing likely influence consumers when making decisions about product naturalness. Males, Millennials, and educated participants have higher naturalness scores than other participants in their respective demographics.
Highlights
In the US and in many other countries, packaging requires that ingredients are listed on the package in descending order by weight with the ingredients listed at the end comprising the smallest percentage of the total formula [1]
A standardized online questionnaire was used by consumers to gather data for this research in three countries: United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and Australia (AUS)
Comparing the naturalness scores of Cheetos and Yogurt, it may be possible that artificial flavors are more acceptable additives than artificial colors
Summary
In the US and in many other countries, packaging requires that ingredients are listed on the package in descending order by weight with the ingredients listed at the end comprising the smallest percentage of the total formula [1]. The common name is listed on the statement. Flavors are listed as “artificial flavor” and/or “natural flavor” on ingredient statements [2]. Previous research has been conducted on consumer perceptions of food labels and ingredients. This work includes the use of and beliefs about nutrition labels, effect of product name and descriptions on perception, influence of nutrition labeling on expectations and sensory perceptions, impact of label and ingredient claims on expectations of liking, effect of pictures and photographs on expectations and perceptions, and impact of organic certification logos on consumers’ willingness to pay and preference for food products [3,4,5,6,7]. Most of this work focuses on label claims and nutrition labels leaving the ingredient statement relatively unstudied. Recent work [7] has shown that consumers have a clear mistrust of ingredients they do not know or recognize (e.g., sorghum flour) or ingredients that are described
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