Mehlhose Clara, Schmitt Daniel, Risius Antje
Marketing of Agricultural and Food Products, Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen, Germany.
Foods. 2021 Apr 20;10(4):904. doi: 10.3390/foods10040904.
Informative food labels are one way to increase nutritional awareness in society and can essentially help individuals maintain balanced dietary practices. Nonetheless, making food labels 'informative', in the sense of applicability, is not always easy. Physical activity calorie equivalent (PACE) food labeling is one approach to achieve this goal. Yet, it is neither understood how consumers perceive PACE labels, nor how effective they are in regards to healthy food choices. Moreover, it is of interest to assess the perception of real products in close-to-realistic environments. Therefore, this study examined a simulated purchase situation and consumers' visual attention on PACE labels-on 20 different real snack products with varying health values. In a laboratory-shopping environment, the gaze behaviors of 91 consumers were examined with a head-mounted eye-tracker. In regards to perception, it was elucidated that every participant noticed at least one PACE label. On average 1.39 PACE label fixations on different products were counted with a mean fixation duration of 0.55 s and a mean time to first fixation of 22.46 s. On average, 22.9% of the participants viewed the PACE labels at least once, but the intensity and duration varied greatly between the different products; 'healthier products' attracted more visual attention than 'unhealthier products'. In regards to health choice, it became obvious that the choices observed were rather healthy and PACE labels attracted attention. This may have been especially true for participants with little involvement in physical activity and health behavior, which may have been the main target group. Hence, catchy, communicable PACE labels, as well as balanced product offerings may facilitate more healthy food choices. The real-world laboratory setting offered valuable insights, which should be followed-up on.
信息丰富的食品标签是提高社会营养意识的一种方式，从本质上讲，它可以帮助个人保持均衡的饮食习惯。然而，从适用性的角度使食品标签具有“信息性”并非总是易事。身体活动卡路里当量（PACE）食品标签就是实现这一目标的一种方法。然而，目前既不清楚消费者如何看待PACE标签，也不清楚它们在健康食品选择方面的效果如何。此外，评估在接近现实的环境中对真实产品的认知也很有意义。因此，本研究考察了一种模拟购买情境以及消费者对20种不同健康价值的真实零食产品上的PACE标签的视觉关注度。在一个实验室购物环境中，使用头戴式眼动仪对91名消费者的注视行为进行了检测。在认知方面，结果表明每个参与者至少注意到了一个PACE标签。不同产品上平均有1.39次对PACE标签的注视，平均注视持续时间为0.55秒，首次注视的平均时间为22.46秒。平均而言，22.9%的参与者至少查看过一次PACE标签，但不同产品之间的强度和持续时间差异很大；“更健康的产品”比“不太健康的产品”吸引了更多的视觉关注。在健康选择方面，很明显观察到的选择相当健康，并且PACE标签吸引了注意力。对于很少参与体育活动和健康行为的参与者来说可能尤其如此，而这部分人可能是主要目标群体。因此，吸引人且易于理解的PACE标签以及均衡的产品供应可能会促进更健康的食品选择。这种真实世界的实验室环境提供了有价值的见解，值得进一步跟进。
