Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Tweekerkenstraat 2, 9000, Ghent, Belgium.
Appetite. 2021 Feb 1;157:104995. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2020.104995. Epub 2020 Oct 15.
Making healthier food choices easier at the time of purchase is a challenge for public policy makers. The Nutri-Score can be an effective tool for guiding and steering consumers toward more informed, healthier purchasing decisions. This research investigates the impact of the presence of the Nutri-Score and its five categories on consumers' perceived healthiness perceptions and purchase intentions. Consumers in the EU took part in two online experiments, in which they rated products from different categories, with or without Nutri-Scores, in terms of their perceived healthiness and purchase intentions. The presence of the Nutri-Score enabled respondents to assess the healthiness of products better; furthermore, it offers the potential to boost sales of healthy products, without affecting sales of unhealthy products. Perceived healthiness mediates the relationship between Nutri-Score categories and purchase intentions, and focusing on the healthiness of products can give producers a competitive advantage, regardless of whether it is a manufacturer brand or a private label. These findings offer actionable insights for public policy makers and manufacturers; they also suggest the need to embrace the Nutri-Score as the standard front-of-pack label to help fight the increasing obesity pandemic.
对于公共政策制定者来说，在购买时更容易做出更健康的食物选择是一项挑战。营养评分可以作为一种有效的工具，引导和引导消费者做出更明智、更健康的购买决策。本研究调查了营养评分及其五个类别对消费者感知健康程度和购买意愿的影响。欧盟的消费者参与了两项在线实验，他们根据感知健康程度和购买意愿对不同类别、有或没有营养评分的产品进行了评价。营养评分的存在使受访者能够更好地评估产品的健康程度；此外，它还有可能促进健康产品的销售，而不会影响不健康产品的销售。感知健康程度在营养评分类别和购买意愿之间起中介作用，关注产品的健康程度可以使生产商获得竞争优势，无论它是制造商品牌还是自有品牌。这些发现为公共政策制定者和制造商提供了可行的见解；它们还表明需要采用营养评分作为标准的包装正面标签，以帮助应对日益严重的肥胖流行。
