van Kleef Ellen, van Trijp Hans, Paeps Frederic, Fernández-Celemín Laura
Marketing and Consumer Behaviour Group, Department of Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Public Health Nutr. 2008 Feb;11(2):203-13. doi: 10.1017/S1368980007000304. Epub 2007 Jul 2.
In light of the emerging obesity pandemic, front-of-pack calories labels may be an important tool to assist consumers in making informed healthier food choices. However, there is little prior research to guide key decisions on whether caloric content should be expressed in absolute terms or relative to recommended daily intake, whether it should be expressed in per serving or per 100 g and whether the information should be further brought alive for consumers in terms of what the extra calorie intake implies in relation to activity levels. The present study aimed at providing more insight into consumers' appreciation of front-of-pack labelling of caloric content of food products and their specific preferences for alternative execution formats for such information in Europe.
For this purpose, eight executions of front-of-pack calorie flags were designed and their appeal and information value were extensively discussed with consumers through qualitative research in four different countries (Germany, The Netherlands, France and the UK).
The results show that calories are well-understood and that participants were generally positive about front-of-pack flags, particularly when flags are uniform across products. The most liked flags are the simpler flags depicting only the number of calories per serving or per 100 g, while more complex flags including references to daily needs or exercise and the flag including a phrase referring to balanced lifestyle were least preferred. Some relevant differences between countries were observed. Although participants seem to be familiar with the notion of calories, they do not seem to fully understand how to apply them.
From the results, managerial implications for the design and implementation of front-of-pack calorie labelling as well as important directions for future research are discussed.
鉴于肥胖问题日益严重，包装正面的卡路里标签可能是帮助消费者做出明智的更健康食品选择的重要工具。然而，此前几乎没有研究可指导关于卡路里含量应以绝对数值表示还是相对于每日推荐摄入量表示、应以每份还是每100克表示，以及就额外卡路里摄入量与活动水平的关系而言，该信息是否应进一步向消费者生动呈现等关键决策。本研究旨在更深入了解欧洲消费者对食品包装正面卡路里含量标签的认知以及他们对这类信息不同呈现形式的具体偏好。
为此，设计了八种包装正面卡路里标识，并通过在四个不同国家（德国、荷兰、法国和英国）开展的定性研究，与消费者广泛讨论了这些标识的吸引力和信息价值。
结果表明，卡路里很容易理解，参与者总体上对包装正面标识持积极态度，尤其是当标识在不同产品间保持一致时。最受欢迎的标识是仅显示每份或每100克卡路里数的较简单标识，而包括提及每日需求或运动的更复杂标识以及包含提及平衡生活方式短语的标识最不受青睐。观察到了一些国家间的相关差异。尽管参与者似乎熟悉卡路里的概念，但他们似乎并未完全理解如何运用这些信息。
根据研究结果，讨论了食品包装正面卡路里标签设计与实施的管理启示以及未来研究的重要方向。
