Department of Agricultural Economics, Ghent University, Coupure links 653, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.
European Food Information Council (EUFIC), Rue des Deux Eglises 14 (3rd floor), 1000 Brussels, Belgium.
Nutrients. 2019 Feb 14;11(2):403. doi: 10.3390/nu11020403.
Despite the fact that front-of-pack nutrition labels such as health claims and symbols have received growing attention in consumer behavior research, comprehensive conclusions could not yet be drawn to develop concrete policy actions, owing to the complexity of the subject and a constantly changing market environment. In this study, evidence-based policy recommendations and communication guidelines have been derived from the findings of the EU FP7 project CLYMBOL ("Role of health-related CLaims and sYMBOLs in consumer behavior", Grant Agreement 311963), and have been evaluated and prioritized by European stakeholders using a three-round Delphi method. A moderate level of consensus was achieved and results suggest that policy priority should focus on ways to improve consumer motivation and interest in healthy eating. Consumers' interest in healthy eating could be increased by adopting appropriate communication strategies such as using innovative ways to communicate the importance of healthy eating, which may aim to change the possible negative association between healthiness and tastiness. The highest-rated finding was related to consumers' favorable attitude towards health claims with shorter and less complex messages and health symbols with a visible endorsement. Meanwhile, there was a clear consensus that health claims need to be scientifically substantiated and credible but phrased without using overly complex scientific wordings, in order to be meaningful for consumers. Furthermore, stakeholders from academia and industry believe that consumer awareness about existing health claims should be increased. The identified policy recommendations and communication guidelines stem from recent empirical evidence and provide useful insights that guide future policy development aligning consumer protection issues as well as public health and food marketing communication interests.
尽管在消费者行为研究中，诸如健康声称和符号等包装正面营养标签已经受到越来越多的关注，但由于该主题的复杂性以及不断变化的市场环境，仍无法得出全面的结论以制定具体的政策措施。在本研究中，从欧盟 FP7 项目 CLYMBOL（“健康声称和符号在消费者行为中的作用”，协议号 311963）的研究结果中得出了基于证据的政策建议和沟通指南，并通过三轮 Delphi 方法由欧洲利益相关者进行了评估和优先级排序。达成了中等程度的共识，结果表明，政策重点应放在提高消费者对健康饮食的动机和兴趣的方法上。通过采用创新的方式来传达健康饮食的重要性等适当的沟通策略，可以提高消费者对健康饮食的兴趣，这可能旨在改变健康与美味之间可能存在的负面关联。评级最高的发现与消费者对具有更短、更简洁信息的健康声称以及带有明显背书的健康符号的有利态度有关。同时，各方明确认为健康声称需要有科学依据并且值得信赖，但表述时不要使用过于复杂的科学措辞，以便对消费者有意义。此外，学术界和业界的利益相关者认为，应该提高消费者对现有健康声称的认识。确定的政策建议和沟通指南源自最新的实证证据，为指导未来的政策制定提供了有用的见解，这些政策制定兼顾了消费者保护问题以及公共卫生和食品营销沟通利益。
