A review of European research on consumer response to nutrition information on food labels

By K. Grunert, Josephine Wills. Journal of public health, 2007

1,263 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The aim of this study was to review research conducted in 2003–2006 in the EU-15 countries on how consumers perceive, understand, like and use nutrition information on food labels. Based on a search of databases on academic publications, Google-based search, and enquiries directed to a range of food retailers, food companies, consumer associations and government agencies, a total of 58 studies were identified. These studies were summarised using a standard format guided by a model of consumer information processing, and these summaries were subsequently processed using the MAXqda software in order to identify key findings and common themes across the studies. The studies show widespread consumer interest in nutrition information on food packages, though this interest varies across situations and products. Consumers like the idea of simplified front of pack information but differ in their liking for the various formats. Differences can be related to conflicting preferences for ease of use, being fully informed and not being pressurised into behaving in a particular way. Most consumers understand the most common signposting formats in the sense that they themselves believe that they understand them and they can replay key information presented to them in an experimental situation. There is, however, virtually no insight into how labelling information is, or will be, used in a real-world shopping situation, and how it will affect consumers’ dietary patterns. Results are largely in line with an earlier review by Cowburn and Stockley (Public Health Nutr 8:21–28, 2005), covering research up to 2002, but provide new insights into consumer liking and understanding of simplified front of pack signposting formats. There is an urgent need for more research studying consumer use of nutritional information on food labels in a real-world setting.

Subfields: Food Science, Marketing, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/8a27a12d1b0a9b8b83b3715d74ab8d6661da8f1c

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Citations in the corpus

From Nutrients to Nurturance: A Conceptual Introduction to Food Well-Being (2011, positive): “Consumer FWB can be enhanced by policies that improve legibility, terminology, and formats of nutrition labels and, therefore, consumer use of these labels, which is currently far from optimal (Grunert and Wills 2007; Mackey and Metz 2009).”
Measuring consumers attitudes towards health and taste and their association with food-related life-styles and preferences (2019, background): “Consumers are, in general, interested in the relationship between health and food (Rozin, 2007), and health is indeed among the most important motives of food choice and decision making (Verbeke, 2008; Grunert & Wills, 2007; Steptoe, Pollard, & Wardle, 1995).”
Customer Response to Carbon Labelling of Groceries (2011, background): “Recent reviews of food labelling suggest that consumers make relatively little use of nutrition information, particularly if the information is complicated (Cowburn and Stockley 2005; Grunert and Wills 2007; Rex and Baumann 2007).”
Traffic Lights and Food Choice: A Choice Experiment Examining the Relationship Between Nutritional Food Labels and Price (2010, background): “For example, Grunert and Wills (2007) noted that the when it comes to actual use of the TLS not everybody responds to Red as intended because taste overrides considerations related to health.”
Nutrition knowledge, and use and understanding of nutrition information on food labels among consumers in the UK. (2010, methodology): “A range of consumer research studies (reviewed recently by Cowburn & Stockley, 2005; Drichoutis, Lazaridis, & Nayga, 2006; Grunert & Wills, 2007) have tried to shed light on these questions.”
Nutrition labels on pre-packaged foods: a systematic review (2011, background): “Research also suggests that placing nutrition information on the front of packages is more effective than information positioned on the side or back of packages((15,87,137)).”
Guidelines on cardiovascular disease prevention in clinical practice: the European perspective (2005, neutral): “Consumers 3163 understand different systems of labelling and their use has a positive impact on sales.(509) EHN 3164 calls for a simplified, colour-coded, front-of-pack scheme indicating high, medium and low 3165 levels of nutrients.”