Tal Aner, Niemann Stina, Wansink Brian
ONO Academic College, Kiryat Ono, Israel.
Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, USA.
BMC Public Health. 2017 Feb 6;17(1):169. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4082-5.
Extensive work has focused on the effects of nutrition label information on consumer behavior on the one hand, and on the effects of packaging graphics on the other hand. However, little work has examined how serving suggestion depictions - graphics relating to serving size - influence the quantity consumers serve themselves. The current work examines the prevalence of exaggerated serving size depictions on product packaging (study 1) and its effects on food serving in the context of cereal (study 2).
Study 1 was an observational field survey of cereal packaging. Study 2 was a mixed experimental cross-sectional design conducted at a U.S. university, with 51 student participants. Study 1 coded 158 US breakfast cereals and compared the serving sizes depicted on the front of the box with the suggested serving size stated on the nutrition facts panel. Study 2 measured the amount of cereal poured from exaggerated or accurate serving size depictions. Study 1 compared average servings via t-tests. Study 2 used a mixed model with cereal type as the repeated measure and a compound symmetry covariance matrix.
Study 1 demonstrated that portion size depictions on the front of 158 cereal boxes were 65.84% larger (221 vs. 134 calories) than the recommended portions on nutrition facts panels of those cereals. Study 2 showed that boxes that depicted exaggerated serving sizes led people to pour 20% more cereal compared to pouring from modified boxes that depicted a single-size portion of cereal matching suggested serving size. This was 45% over the suggested serving size.
Biases in depicted serving size depicted on cereal packaging are prevalent in the marketplace. Such biases may lead to overserving, which may consequently lead to overeating. Companies should depict the recommended serving sizes, or otherwise indicate that the depicted portion represents an exaggerated serving size.
一方面，大量研究聚焦于营养标签信息对消费者行为的影响；另一方面，则关注包装图形的影响。然而，很少有研究探讨食用建议描述（与食用分量相关的图形）如何影响消费者自行取用的食物量。本研究考察了产品包装上夸张的食用分量描述的普遍程度（研究1）及其在谷物食品情境中对食物分量取用的影响（研究2）。
研究1是对谷物包装的观察性实地调查。研究2是在美国一所大学进行的混合实验性横断面设计，有51名学生参与者。研究1对158种美国早餐谷物进行编码，将包装盒正面标注的食用分量与营养成分表中建议的食用分量进行比较。研究2测量了从夸张或准确的食用分量描述的包装中倒出的谷物量。研究1通过t检验比较平均食用量。研究2使用以谷物类型为重复测量且具有复合对称协方差矩阵的混合模型。
研究1表明，158种谷物包装盒正面标注的食用分量比这些谷物营养成分表中建议的食用分量大65.84%（221卡路里对134卡路里）。研究2表明，与从标注了与建议食用分量相符的单一食用量的改良包装中倒出谷物相比，标注了夸张食用分量的包装会使人们多倒出20%的谷物。这比建议的食用分量超出了45%。
谷物包装上标注的食用分量偏差在市场上很普遍。这种偏差可能导致过量取用，进而可能导致暴饮暴食。企业应标注建议的食用分量，或者以其他方式表明所标注的分量是夸张的食用量。
