School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
Front Public Health. 2024 Feb 14;12:1296704. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1296704. eCollection 2024.
Packaging design is a communication device and a critical component in branding strategy, and has relevance for food policy. Presently, packaging-related nutrition policy initiatives focus on the role of regulated claims, nutrition information panels and front-of-pack nutrition labels to help guide consumer food choices and address high prevalences of discretionary and ultra-processed food consumption in many countries. However, these nutrition labelling systems are not optimized as public health policy tools as many consumers do not use them to inform their food choices. Visual communication design theory posits that a designer orders the elements and principles of design into hierarchies that prioritize certain elements over others, and that some of these elements are more dominant and given more emphasis than others. The overall design of the package thereby directs consumer attention to some aspects of pack design (e.g., characters, contents of the package) and away from others (e.g., nutrition details). Dual processing frameworks propose that food decisions are made with the interplay between automatic and rational thinking processes. Packaging designs affect whether consumers rely predominantly on automatic or rational thinking to select a food. This narrative review outlines the role of food packaging design and how it impacts the clear communication of nutrition aspects of food products and how the use of nutrition information by consumers to make decisions may depend upon design structures in packaging. This article attests that nutrition scientists and policy makers should incorporate visual communication design into research on the food packaging as a public health promotion tool. A stronger focus on the communication of regulated front-of-pack nutrition information can be made with a re-evaluation of the hierarchy of elements in the front-of-pack design enabling consumers to make healthier decisions.
包装设计是一种沟通工具，也是品牌战略的关键组成部分，与食品政策息息相关。目前，与包装相关的营养政策举措侧重于监管声明、营养信息面板和包装正面营养标签的作用，以帮助引导消费者的食品选择，并解决许多国家中随意和超加工食品消费率高的问题。然而，这些营养标签系统并未作为公共卫生政策工具得到优化，因为许多消费者并未使用这些系统来指导他们的食品选择。视觉传达设计理论认为，设计师将设计的元素和原则组织成层次结构，优先考虑某些元素而不是其他元素，并且其中一些元素比其他元素更具主导地位和更受重视。因此，包装的整体设计引导消费者关注包装设计的某些方面（例如，字符、包装内容），而忽略其他方面（例如，营养细节）。双重加工框架提出，食物决策是在自动和理性思维过程的相互作用下做出的。包装设计会影响消费者主要依赖自动思维还是理性思维来选择食物。本文概述了食品包装设计的作用，以及它如何影响食品产品营养方面的清晰传达，以及消费者使用营养信息做出决策的方式可能取决于包装设计的结构。本文认为，营养科学家和政策制定者应该将视觉传达设计纳入食品包装作为公共卫生促进工具的研究中。通过重新评估包装正面设计中元素的层次结构，可以更加关注监管前包装营养信息的传达，使消费者能够做出更健康的决策。
