Departamento de Economía y Administración, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca 3460000, Chile.
Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales, Scientific and Technological Bioresource Nucleus (BIOREN-UFRO), Centro de Excelencia en Psicología Economía y del Consumo, Núcleo Científico Tecnológico en Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4780000, Chile.
Nutrients. 2022 Apr 8;14(8):1547. doi: 10.3390/nu14081547.
Nutritional warnings (NWs) as a front-of-package label were implemented as a public policy aiding consumers with recognizing processed foods with high levels of critical nutrients (sodium, saturated fats, carbohydrates, and calories). However, in spite of this tool being well positioned in consumer decision making, there is little extant knowledge about the relationship between the message sent by NW, nutritional knowledge, consumer motivation, and the intention to avoid consuming processed foods. To understand these dimensions' relations, a theoretical model was created and subsequently tested through structural equations. We applied a survey to 807 home food purchasing decision makers. The results show that the direct effect of NW messages raises the intention to avoid processed foods, while eating motivation is negative in its direct effect on the same avoidance intention. However, the message sent by NWs had a mediating effect between the intentions to avoid processed food and eating motivation but showed no such effect on nutritional knowledge. This suggests that the message sent by NWs was able to turn negative eating motivation into positive eating motivation to avoid processed foods. In conclusion, NWs help mitigate eating motivations, as well as boost the intention to avoid processed foods.
营养警示（NWs）作为一种包装正面标签，是作为一项公共政策实施的，旨在帮助消费者识别含有高含量关键营养素（钠、饱和脂肪、碳水化合物和卡路里）的加工食品。然而，尽管这个工具在消费者决策中处于有利地位，但对于 NW 传递的信息、营养知识、消费者动机和避免食用加工食品的意图之间的关系，我们知之甚少。为了理解这些维度的关系，我们创建了一个理论模型，并通过结构方程进行了后续测试。我们对 807 名家庭食品购买决策者进行了调查。结果表明，NW 信息的直接效应提高了避免食用加工食品的意图，而饮食动机对避免食用加工食品的同一意图的直接效应是负面的。然而，NW 传递的信息在避免食用加工食品的意图和饮食动机之间存在中介效应，但在营养知识方面没有这种效应。这表明，NW 传递的信息能够将负面的饮食动机转化为避免食用加工食品的积极饮食动机。总之，NWs 有助于减轻饮食动机，同时增强避免食用加工食品的意图。
