Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways?
To reduce obesity and thus promote healthy food choices, front-of-pack (FOP) labels have been introduced. Though FOP labels help identify healthy foods, their impact on actual food choices is rather small. A newly developed so-called swipe task was used to investigate whether the type of label used...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Nutrients |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/15/3204 |
| _version_ | 1797412713548218368 |
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| author | Swen J. Kühne Ester Reijnen Gracinda Granja Rachel S. Hansen |
| author_facet | Swen J. Kühne Ester Reijnen Gracinda Granja Rachel S. Hansen |
| author_sort | Swen J. Kühne |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | To reduce obesity and thus promote healthy food choices, front-of-pack (FOP) labels have been introduced. Though FOP labels help identify healthy foods, their impact on actual food choices is rather small. A newly developed so-called swipe task was used to investigate whether the type of label used (summary vs. nutrient-specific) had differential effects on different operationalizations of the “healthier choice” measure (e.g., calories and sugar). After learning about the product offerings of a small online store, observers (<i>N</i> = 354) could, by means of a swipe gesture, purchase the products they needed for a weekend with six people. Observers were randomly assigned to one of five conditions, two summary label conditions (Nutri-Score and HFL), two nutrient (sugar)-specific label conditions (manga and comic), or a control condition without a label. Unexpectedly, more products (+7.3 products)—albeit mostly healthy ones—and thus more calories (+1732 kcal) were purchased in the label conditions than in the control condition. Furthermore, the tested labels had different effects with respect to the different operationalizations (e.g., manga reduced sugar purchase). We argue that the additional green-labeled healthy products purchased (in label conditions) “compensate” for the purchase of red-labeled unhealthy products (see averaging bias and licensing effect). |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:06:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-91e997da02ad49a581463b63c0c93673 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2072-6643 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T05:06:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nutrients |
| spelling | doaj.art-91e997da02ad49a581463b63c0c936732023-12-03T12:54:15ZengMDPI AGNutrients2072-66432022-08-011415320410.3390/nu14153204Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways?Swen J. Kühne0Ester Reijnen1Gracinda Granja2Rachel S. Hansen3School of Applied Psychology, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box 707, CH-8037 Zürich, SwitzerlandSchool of Applied Psychology, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box 707, CH-8037 Zürich, SwitzerlandSchool of Applied Psychology, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box 707, CH-8037 Zürich, SwitzerlandSchool of Applied Psychology, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, P.O. Box 707, CH-8037 Zürich, SwitzerlandTo reduce obesity and thus promote healthy food choices, front-of-pack (FOP) labels have been introduced. Though FOP labels help identify healthy foods, their impact on actual food choices is rather small. A newly developed so-called swipe task was used to investigate whether the type of label used (summary vs. nutrient-specific) had differential effects on different operationalizations of the “healthier choice” measure (e.g., calories and sugar). After learning about the product offerings of a small online store, observers (<i>N</i> = 354) could, by means of a swipe gesture, purchase the products they needed for a weekend with six people. Observers were randomly assigned to one of five conditions, two summary label conditions (Nutri-Score and HFL), two nutrient (sugar)-specific label conditions (manga and comic), or a control condition without a label. Unexpectedly, more products (+7.3 products)—albeit mostly healthy ones—and thus more calories (+1732 kcal) were purchased in the label conditions than in the control condition. Furthermore, the tested labels had different effects with respect to the different operationalizations (e.g., manga reduced sugar purchase). We argue that the additional green-labeled healthy products purchased (in label conditions) “compensate” for the purchase of red-labeled unhealthy products (see averaging bias and licensing effect).https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/15/3204food labelNutri-Scoresugarhealthy foodcalorieaveraging bias |
| spellingShingle | Swen J. Kühne Ester Reijnen Gracinda Granja Rachel S. Hansen Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? Nutrients food label Nutri-Score sugar healthy food calorie averaging bias |
| title | Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? |
| title_full | Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? |
| title_fullStr | Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? |
| title_short | Labels Affect Food Choices, but in What Ways? |
| title_sort | labels affect food choices but in what ways |
| topic | food label Nutri-Score sugar healthy food calorie averaging bias |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/15/3204 |
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