Lack of influence on healthy choice of some front of pack nutrition labels

October 1th, 2015

n New Zealand a group of researchers of the University of Otago studied the effect of the traffic light label (TLL) and the Percentage Daily Intake label (PDI) on the purchase intention of products by a large group of students. The labels were used on breakfast cereals and a difference was made between products with lower or higher amounts of sugar. As control also products without such a front of pack label were used. The findings indicated that the labels had a positive effect on purchase intent of cereal products. However, the actual nutritional status of the product as expressed on the used labels did not have any impact on the sample’s evaluation process. The researchers suggest that other labels that are fully evaluated cue systems and express the nutritional status of food products without the need for cognitive evaluation might be a good alternative if TLL and PDI labels also fail in other research test to stimulate the healthy purchase intention. The researchers name also several limitation of the study including the sample (only students), a non-repeated study and only one kind of food product.

Source: 

Robert P Hamlin*, Lisa S McNeill and Vanessa Moore. The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer product evaluation and choice: an experimental study. Public Health Nutrition: 18(12), 2126–2134. doi:10.1017/S1368980014002997