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Is less always more? The effects of low-fat labeling and caloric information on food intake, calorie estimates, taste preference, and health attributions
Abstract
The present study examined whether low-fat labeling and caloric information affect food intake, calorie estimates, taste preference, and health perceptions. Participants included 175 female undergraduate students who were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions. A 2x2 between subjects factorial design was used in which the fat content label and caloric information of chocolate candy was manipulated. The differences in food intake across conditions did not reach statistical significance. However, participants significantly underestimated the calorie content of low-fat-labeled candy. Participants also rated low-fat-labeled candy as significantly better tasting when they had caloric information available. Participants endorsed more positive health attributions for low-fat-labeled candy than for regular-labeled candy, independent of caloric information. The inclusion of eating attitudes and behaviors as covariates did not alter the results. The study findings may be related to the "health halo" associated with low-fat foods and add to the research base by examining the interaction between low-fat and calorie labeling.
... For instance, take the "health halo" effect: labels such as "low in fat", "rich in fibre", "without cholesterol", or even "organic" often lead people to underestimate the calorie content of the food products to which those labels are applied, ultimately leading to over-consumption (Andrews et al., 1998;Forwood et al., 2013;Lee et al., 2013;Wansink & Chandon, 2006). Trait selectivity is evident here too: there is generally a larger label effect (e.g., organic vs. regular) on health-related traits compared to hedonic traits (e.g., tasty), on which there can be a reversed effect (i.e., lower ratings for organic food; Lee et al., 2013;Orquin & Scholderer, 2015;Westcombe & Wardle, 1997; but see Ebneter et al., 2013). ...
... Here the source and target features differ whereas the source and target objects are the same: a person has a source feature (e.g., scores high, medium, or low on attractiveness) and is judged on another (target) feature (e.g., social competence, Dion et al., 1972). The same is true for health halo effects (e.g., the food product that is said to have a high, medium, or low-fat content, is judged on how healthy it is; Ebneter et al., 2013). However, EC and AC effects involve a different situation, one where the source and target features are identical, but the source and target objects differ. ...
... We attempted to replicate the health halo effect by manipulating food labels and the information they communicate about the fat content of a product (low vs. medium vs. high fat; Ebneter et al., 2013;Westcombe & Wardle, 1997). Products with lower fat content (source feature) should be rated more positively on a series of target features (e.g., healthier) than products higher in their fat content. ...
Impression formation effects – such as the halo effect – and learning effects – such as evaluative or attribute conditioning effects – are often seen as separate classes of phenomena. In a recent conceptual paper, De Houwer et al. (2019) suggested that both may actually qualify as instances of feature transformation, where a source feature (e.g., attractiveness of a face; valence of an unconditioned stimulus; US) influences judgements about a target feature (e.g., social competence of a person; valence of a conditioned stimulus; CS). In halo effects, the source and target features typically differ (e.g., a person with an attractive face is judged as more socially competent) but belong to the same object. In evaluative conditioning, source and target features are the same (e.g., a neutral CS is judged as more positive after being paired with a positive US) but belong to different objects. In this paper, we highlight a phenomenon at the crossroads of the two previous effects: feature transformation where source and target features are different (as in halo studies) and belong to different objects that are paired together (as in evaluative conditioning studies). Across six pre-registered experiments (n = 1050), we obtained evidence for this phenomenon in the context of person perception (i.e., attractiveness halo) and food perception (i.e., health halo). We also show that this type of feature transformation is influenced by several known moderators of halo and conditioning effects (beliefs about traits relationship, memory of pairings, and salience of the source feature).
... Using both between-subject and within-subject study designs, we further show that a FOP nutrition label allows adjustment of false expectations. We contribute to existing research that has analyzed evaluative adjustments following the presentation of contradicting nutrition information (Ebneter et al., 2013;Kozup et al., 2003;Stoltze et al., 2021). We demonstrate that truthful nutrition claims can spill over to the perception of unrelated nutrients, thereby introducing a new perspective on health halos. ...
... Consumers also overgeneralize attributes to other specific, closely related attributes. For example, a 'low fat' claim may not only improve the inference of overall healthiness but also of the more specific number of calories (Ebneter et al., 2013). Likewise, the claim 'no cholesterol' leads people to think a product contains less fat (Andrews et al., 1998). ...
... This finding extends previous research regarding consumer generalization of nutrition claims to related nutrients (Andrews et al., 1998). Moreover, our results extend research that has found an influence of congruent and incongruent nutrition information on the adjustment of expectations induced by health or nutrition claims (Ebneter et al., 2013;Kozup et al., 2003;Stoltze et al., 2021). We move beyond this research and demonstrate that even in case of a confirmed focal claim (e.g., a 'low fat' claim on a low fat product), incongruity of another attribute (e.g., sugar content) leads to changes in purchase intention. ...
Truthful yet misleading: Consumer response to 'low fat' food with high sugar content. Food Quality and Preference, forthcoming. 2 Marketers use nutrition claims to communicate potentially beneficial nutritional properties of their products. Claims may only be used if a product has a specific nutrient profile. A downside of nutrition claims is that consumers tend to overgeneralize their meaning, perceiving a product as healthier than it is. This becomes particularly problematic when claims emphasize low amounts of one nutrient while the product contains high amounts of other, typically unhealthy, unmentioned nutrients-a phenomenon which has received little attention in extant literature. This research examines how consumers perceive food with 'low fat' claims in terms of sugar content, and how consumers respond when front-of-package (FOP) nutrition information reveals the high amounts of sugar for that product. The empirical part comprises three different experiments with consumers from the United States (total N = 760). Data were analyzed using ANCOVA to evaluate interaction effects and regression-based mediation analysis to assess the underlying mechanism. Results indicate biased consumer expectations regarding sugar content for products with 'low fat' claims. The presence of FOP nutrition labels reveals such claim-induced expectation gaps with nuanced changes in nutrient evaluation and purchase intention. This research provides important implications for consumer food choice. Marketers would be better off avoiding the use of misleading nutrition claims as a food marketing tool to avoid detrimental effects to their consumers and business performance. For public policy implications, this study demonstrates that reductive FOP nutrition labels are effective in mitigating the harm induced by potentially misleading nutrition claims.
... The product can be tested in blind, informed or expected conditions. In blind conditions, the consumer evaluates the intrinsic attributes (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13); in informed conditions, external information (nutritional information, packaging, health claims, etc.) is provided by means of sensory evaluation (14)(15)(16)(17)(18); and in expected conditions, a product is evaluated only on the basis of external information (19)(20)(21)(22). ...
... Studies that examined expected conditions alone (n=6) were conducted online (20,36,37), in the field (22) or in a laboratory (21,38). Only in one of the studies were product attributes evaluated in informed conditions alone (17). In general, the majority of researchers evaluated products in blind conditions, with 12 studies combining this with informed conditions. ...
... Product acceptability was measured most often (n=26) using different response scales (9-point hedonic scale, 100 mm scale, JAR). Researchers were also interested in the perception of healthiness during product tasting (15,17,31,(36)(37)(38) or only while observing the extrinsic attributes (20,37). Descriptive product properties were evaluated in seven studies (8,15,19,(39)(40)(41)(42) using CATA or (n=1) (23) Based on content, the following were excluded: (a) studies (n=29) that dealt with flavour substitutes (e.g. ...
Introduction
Reducing the salt, sugar and fat content of food is recognised worldwide as one of the strategies available for reducing the incidence of obesity and non-communicable diseases. The food industry has a major influence on achieving these goals by preserving intrinsic (chemical and sensory properties) and modifying extrinsic (food packaging and other external information) food attributes that can influence purchasing decisions. This article is a literature review of studies that analyse the influence of intrinsic and/or extrinsic attributes on consumer product preference and purchasing decisions.
Methods
A keyword search for relevant studies was conducted using Web of Science, an interdisciplinary electronic resource. Articles from other sources were also included and systematically reviewed.
Results
The search string identified 266 results. Thirty-eight articles were included in the final analysis and coded according to intrinsic and extrinsic food attributes, reformulated nutrient, food category, condition, research methods, consumer response, study location and sample size. There are several authors investigating the effect of intrinsic rather than extrinsic product attributes. Most research deals with processed foods in the category of milk and dairy products, followed by sweetened fruit juices, meat products, sweets and bread. Salt content is the attribute most often reduced, followed by sugar and fat.
Conclusions
Consumers find it hard to swap potential health benefits for hedonic attributes. When evaluating products in expected conditions, they usually rate the reformulated product more highly than the conventional one, while in informed conditions they usually choose the regular product. When products are labelled with a traffic light or nutritional warnings, consumers opt for a reformulated product, even in informed conditions. This review highlights the heterogeneity between food groups, and the fact that many factors influence consumers’ product preferences and purchasing decisions. The product should be analysed as a whole and tested in blind, expected and informed conditions, as each individual factor represents a phase of the consumer purchasing decision. The extent of nutrient reduction should be determined by calculating the difference threshold, and the industry should reformulate products gradually based on how consumers detect the reduction.
... Meanwhile tastiness represents an "experience" quality that can be assessed after consumption [9]. While evidence shows that nutritional or content-related information can be also important for taste judgments (e.g., fat and calorie information) [25], many studies, which found a link between the content information and taste expectations, do not provide numerical information, but rather labels and flavor descriptions. Other researchers, for example, used the claim "now reduced in salt, better taste" [26]. ...
... By contrast, it was reported that consumers perceived a bologna labeled as "light type Bologna, 10% fat" as less tasty than a "regular type Bologna, 20% fat" [27]. Others, on the other hand, found that a "low fat" label was associated with better taste, but only when numerical caloric information was simultaneously presented [25]. Importantly, these two studies [27,25] used a description together with the numerical information and not solely numerical information. ...
... Others, on the other hand, found that a "low fat" label was associated with better taste, but only when numerical caloric information was simultaneously presented [25]. Importantly, these two studies [27,25] used a description together with the numerical information and not solely numerical information. Indeed, verbal descriptions help consumers to activate cortical representations of a taste experience (for a review, see [28]). ...
Overconsumption of highly sugary foods contributes to increases in obesity and diabetes in our population, and initiatives are issued worldwide to reduce sugar content in food products. However, it is unclear how the presentation of reduced sugar content on food packages affects taste expectations of consumers. Based on the learned knowledge about negative health effects of sugar and the common belief that unhealthy food tastes better than healthy food, consumers might conclude that lower sugar levels are associated with higher healthiness and lower tastiness. Addressing this concern, we examined how quantitative information about sugar content without any verbal description influences consumers’ health and taste expectations of dairy desserts. We asked participants to indicate the expected healthiness and tastiness of randomly sampled dairy desserts, while varying systematically the quantitative sugar information provided in a label presented with the desserts (numerical sugar level in grams per 100 grams of product: low vs. original vs. high). We assumed that quantitative sugar content is not equally associated with healthiness and tastiness of products and that numerical information about sugar content informs health more than taste expectations. Therefore, we predicted that consumers expect higher healthiness, but not to the same degree lower tastiness for products with reduced sugar contented compared to products with higher sugar content. The results of the present study are in line with this hypothesis. We found that consumers expected desserts with less sugar to be healthier than desserts with higher levels of sugar. The experimentally varied sugar levels did not affect the tastiness expectations. Notably, consumers did not follow the unhealthy = tasty intuition and did not devaluate the tastiness of desserts because of heightened healthiness expectations. Our findings suggest that sole numerical information about sugar content—an important nutritional value—is more diagnostic in the construction of healthiness rather than tastiness expectations of food products.
... It describes which food category, and type of nutrition claim each study examined, and also indicates the outcome areas on which each study focused. Five studies were from the United States [37][38][39][40], one from Australia [31], and five from European countries, including two from Germany [32,33], two from the United Kingdom [35,36], and one from the Netherlands [34]. Eight studies analysed the influence of nutrition claims relating to fat [31,[34][35][36][38][39][40], two focused on nutrition claims relating to fat and sugar [32,33], and one on nutrition claims relating to fat as well as energy content [37]. ...
... Five studies were from the United States [37][38][39][40], one from Australia [31], and five from European countries, including two from Germany [32,33], two from the United Kingdom [35,36], and one from the Netherlands [34]. Eight studies analysed the influence of nutrition claims relating to fat [31,[34][35][36][38][39][40], two focused on nutrition claims relating to fat and sugar [32,33], and one on nutrition claims relating to fat as well as energy content [37]. The majority of studies were experimental. ...
... The majority of studies were experimental. The methodological quality of most studies was 'low' [32][33][34][35][36][38][39][40]. Only one study was of 'moderate' quality [37]. ...
Background:
As part of efforts to address high levels of overweight and obesity, the provision of nutrition information (e.g., through nutrition labels and nutrition claims) on food packages has increasingly become an important policy option. This study aimed to assess the influence of nutrition claims relating to fat, sugar, and energy content on product packaging on several aspects of food choices to understand how they contribute to the prevention of overweight and obesity.
Methods:
A systematic literature review was conducted using the online databases EBSCOhost Global Health, EBSCOhost Medline, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PsycINFO and Embase. Studies were included if they measured the influence of nutrition claims relating to fat, sugar, and energy content on outcomes related to body weight, and were published between January 2003 and April 2018.
Results:
Eleven studies were included in the review. Results showed that nutrition claims can influence the knowledge of consumers with respect to perceived healthfulness of products, as well as expected and experienced tastiness of food products - making food products with nutrition claims seem healthier and less tasty. Nutrition claims can make the appropriate portion size appear to be larger and lead to an underestimation of the energy content of food products. Nutrition claims can also influence food purchase intentions, moderated by the perceived healthfulness of the relevant food products and the health consciousness of individuals. Nutrition claims were also found to have an impact on food purchases, to influence 'consumption guilt' (i.e., feeling of guilt associated with eating), and to increase consumption, moderated by the weight status of individuals. These influences were shown to vary depending on the type of claim and food carrying the claim.
Conclusions:
There is evidence that, while nutrition claims may lead some consumers to improve their nutrition knowledge and select healthier options, it may also lead consumers to increase food consumption and overall energy intake. This may run counter to efforts to address overweight and obesity.
... There has been an abundance of studies investigating the effects of incorporating nutritional information into food packaging on the food choices of various populations (6)(7)(8) and there is a growing body of evidence that not all ways of presenting nutritional information to the consumer have similarly desirable effects on food choices. For instance, simplified, front-of-pack, single-nutrient claims, particularly 'low-fat', could be hindering the general public from making healthier choices, as research has shown that it could lead to underestimation of total energy (9) . In most of these studies towards the relationship between nutrition information and behaviour, the available nutrition information itself is manipulated between the groups that are studied, rather than measured and compared within a particular group (10) . ...
... Moreover, we assume that there are factors other than motivation and intention at play in the complex behaviours relating to food choice. Earlier studies have shown that nutritional literacy (24,25) , potentially exposure to food retailers (26) and taste preferences (9,27) have a profound influence on food choice behaviour and hence health. We chose to focus on nutritional literacy as it has emerged as a key component in the promotion and maintenance of healthy dietary practices. ...
... We coded taste preferences as '1' when the unhealthy option was selected, '2' when no preference was indicated and '3' when a preference for the healthy option was indicated. The recorded values per choice were aggregated into a continuous variable ranging from a general taste preference for the unhealthy option (9), to a general taste preference for the healthy option (27). ...
Consumers intending to eat healthily should consult available information on the energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat content of foods. Some consumers, however, do this more than others do. The objective of this research was to identify distinct subgroups within the group of consumers who intend to eat healthily, segmented according to the timing and frequency of their use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat. Furthermore, we analysed whether consulting this information actually led to healthier food choices. Data on use of specific nutritional information in a computerised task in which participants made multiple dichotomous food choices (e.g. high-fat v. low-fat cheese) were recorded from 240 participants using process tracing software. Participants could view nutritional information by hovering the mouse over specific areas of the screen. We found three clusters of participants based on use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat: low, medium and high information users. There was a between-clusters difference in how often the healthy option was chosen (88·95 % with high information v. 67·17 % with low information usage). Presence in the medium and high information clusters was partially predicted by perceived self-efficacy in making healthy choices. It appears that some consumers are very confident of their ability to make healthy choices, which is a reason for making less use of nutritional information prior to making food choices and may result in unhealthy choices. Our findings improve understanding of the conditions needed to develop effective interventions targeted at health-conscious consumers.
... Four studies examined the association between health-related claims use (see Table 7 for examples of health-related claims) and diet (2 cross-sectional studies, using 24 h recalls, 2 RCTs) (Crockett, Jebb, Hankins, & Marteau, 2014;Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013;Kollannoor-Samuel et al., 2016;Ollberding et al., 2010). ...
... K. Anastasiou, et al. Appetite 138 (2019) 280-291 and non-users (Crockett et al., 2014;Ebneter et al., 2013). The observational study found an association between health-related claims use and lower fat, saturated fat and higher fibre intake, but not sugar, sodium, cholesterol or energy intake (Ollberding et al., 2010). ...
... However, there is limited evidence regarding whether the implementation of these government or industry-led schemes are effective in improving dietary intake. Two out of four studies on front-of-pack labels and diet found no significant results, indicating that front-of-pack label use may not always influence diet (Crockett et al., 2014;Ebneter et al., 2013;Roberto et al., 2012;Steenhuis et al., 2010). This is supported by a related study which found that front-of-pack labels do not influence purchasing behaviours (Sacks, Rayner, & Swinburn, 2009). ...
Poor diet, resulting from high intake of ultra-processed packaged foods, is increasingly recognised as a key contributing factor to ill health. Food labels provide information on the nutritional content of packaged foods to consumers, which may influence consumption of nutrients such as energy, fat, saturated fat, trans-fats, sodium and added sugars. This review aims to summarise the current evidence for the association between use of food labels and dietary intake. The systematic search was conducted in August 2017 using six databases, with 6325 results. Twenty-six studies were included, including cross-sectional studies (n = 20), a cohort study (n = 1) and randomised controlled trials (n = 5). Studies were assessed using the American Dietetic Association Quality Criteria Checklist. Results were inconsistent in reporting a relationship between diet and food label use but indicated that reading the nutrition facts label is associated with healthier diets, measured by food frequency questionnaires and 24 h recalls. However, there is insufficient research on the association between dietary consumption and use of ingredients lists, serving size information and front-of-pack labels. Using health-related claims may be associated with poor diets, however evidence is inconclusive. Apart from health-related claims, using food labels is associated with healthier diets and should continue to be promoted through policies and education programs. Further research in this area is warranted to provide additional information on the impact of ingredients lists, serving sizes, front-of-pack labels and health-related claims on dietary intake.
... These terms included serving size, 21,23,30,34 servings, 22,49 and portions. 31,43 Most studies incorporated 1 type of food label in the experiment (n ¼ 16 studies) 22 21,50 Most studies tested 1 food product (n ¼ 14 studies) [20][21][22][23]30,34,37,[41][42][43]45,48,49 or 1 meal (n ¼ 5 studies), 31,36,50 although 4 studies tests 2 food products, 19,39,44 and 2 studies tested 3 food products. 24,28 Twelve studies did not specify the number of foods tested. ...
... They were evaluated in 15 studies, and 17 effects were reported. Of these 17 effects, 8 were classified as no effect 20,25,28,30,32,38,39 ; 6 as a positive effect, with 4 decreasing consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor No effect of experimental group on consumption. However, significant 3-way interaction of low-fat label, high socioeconomic status, and weight concern; these participants ate more than nonweight concerned seeing a low- foods 24,26,27,40 and 2 increasing consumption of nutrient-dense foods 24,39 ; and 3 as a negative effect. ...
... They were evaluated in 13 studies, and 14 effects were reported. Of these 14 effects, 5 were classified as no effect 20,38,40,41,44 ; 4 as a positive effect, with 2 decreasing consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods 24,45 and 2 increasing consumption of nutrient-dense foods 19,24 ; and 5 as a negative effect. 22,35,46,50 Serving size labels. ...
Context:
In recent decades, portion sizes have increased significantly. Although previous research indicates that food labels impact on product choice and healthiness perception, their impact on portion sizes consumed is less clear.
Objective:
This systematic review examined whether food label information influenced portion size consumption.
Data sources:
A search of 7 major electronic databases for studies published from 1980 to April 2016 was conducted.
Data extraction:
Two reviewers independently screened 11 128 abstracts. Data were extracted from 32 articles (comprising 36 studies).
Results:
Based on the test food used, the overall effects were found to be: no effect, a positive effect, or a negative effect. Labels displaying energy content (n = 15 studies, 17 effects) and fat content information (n = 13 studies, 14 effects) were evaluated most commonly, with exercise equivalent labels evaluated least (n = 2 studies, 2 effects).
Conclusions:
Nutrition and health information presented on food labels has varying impacts on portion sizes consumed, from increased to decreased intake. Recommendations for future research include evaluating more recent food label types and achieving more consistent reporting standards.
... Product consumption Five comparisons from five included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to 'low fat' or equivalent labels on quantities of food or food energy consumed [24,26,36,[41][42][43]. Random effects metaanalysis of these outcome data, collected from a total of 680 participants, showed a summary effect size (SMD) of 0.27 (95% CI: −0.12 to 0.66, p = 0.17, I 2 = 83%), consistent with evidence for no effect of 'low fat' or equivalent SMD standardised mean difference, IV generic inverse variance, random Random effects model, 95% CI 95% confidence interval, a Summary effect size (pooled estimate), N/A not applicable labels on consumption (Fig. 3). ...
... Product appeal Ten comparisons identified from eight included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to eligible labels on product appeal. Useable outcome data were available for meta-analysis from eight independent comparisons, from seven RCTs [19,26,31,32,34,36,38,43]. Random effects meta-analysis of these outcome data (Fig. 5), collected from a total of 1013 participants, showed a summary effect size (SMD) of −0.01 (95% CI: −0.14 to 0.13, p = 0.93, I 2 = 14%), consistent with evidence for no effect of 'Low fat' or equivalent labels on appeal. ...
... Understanding of the label Five comparisons from four included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to eligible labels on participants' understanding of the Fig. 4 Funnel plot of comparison: food products -exposure to 'low fat' or equivalent labels versus exposure to 'higher fat' or equivalent labels or no equivalent labels; outcomeproduct consumption label [26,36,41,42]. Useable outcome data were available for meta-analysis from four independent comparisons from three of these RCTs [26,41,42]. ...
BACKGROUND: Explicit labelling of lower strength alcohol products could reduce alcohol consumption by attracting more people to buy and drink such products instead of higher strength ones. Alternatively, it may lead to more consumption due to a 'self-licensing' mechanism. Equivalent labelling of food or tobacco (for example "Low fat" or "Low tar") could influence consumption of those products by similar mechanisms. This systematic review examined the effects of 'Low alcohol' and equivalent labelling of alcohol, food and tobacco products on selection, consumption, and perceptions of products among adults. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted based on Cochrane methods. Electronic and snowball searches identified 26 eligible studies. Evidence from 12 randomised controlled trials (all on food) was assessed for risk of bias, synthesised using random effects meta-analysis, and interpreted in conjunction with evidence from 14 non-randomised studies (one on alcohol, seven on food and six on tobacco). Outcomes assessed were: quantities of the product (i) selected or (ii) consumed (primary outcomes - behaviours), (iii) intentions to select or consume the product, (iv) beliefs associated with it consumption, (v) product appeal, and (vi) understanding of the label (secondary outcomes - cognitions). RESULTS: Evidence for impacts on the primary outcomes (i.e. amounts selected or consumed) was overall of very low quality, showing mixed effects, likely to vary by specific label descriptors, products and population characteristics. Overall very low quality evidence suggested that exposure to 'Low alcohol' and equivalent labelling on alcohol, food and tobacco products can shift consumer perceptions of products, with the potential to 'self-licence' excess consumption. CONCLUSIONS: Considerable uncertainty remains about the effects of labels denoting low alcohol, and equivalent labels, on alcohol, food and tobacco selection and consumption. Independent, high-quality studies are urgently needed to inform policies on labelling regulations.
... Product consumption Five comparisons from five included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to 'low fat' or equivalent labels on quantities of food or food energy consumed [24,26,36,[41][42][43]. Random effects metaanalysis of these outcome data, collected from a total of 680 participants, showed a summary effect size (SMD) of 0.27 (95% CI: −0.12 to 0.66, p = 0.17, I 2 = 83%), consistent with evidence for no effect of 'low fat' or equivalent SMD standardised mean difference, IV generic inverse variance, random Random effects model, 95% CI 95% confidence interval, a Summary effect size (pooled estimate), N/A not applicable labels on consumption (Fig. 3). ...
... Product appeal Ten comparisons identified from eight included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to eligible labels on product appeal. Useable outcome data were available for meta-analysis from eight independent comparisons, from seven RCTs [19,26,31,32,34,36,38,43]. Random effects meta-analysis of these outcome data (Fig. 5), collected from a total of 1013 participants, showed a summary effect size (SMD) of −0.01 (95% CI: −0.14 to 0.13, p = 0.93, I 2 = 14%), consistent with evidence for no effect of 'Low fat' or equivalent labels on appeal. ...
... Understanding of the label Five comparisons from four included RCTs assessed the effect of exposure to eligible labels on participants' understanding of the Fig. 4 Funnel plot of comparison: food products -exposure to 'low fat' or equivalent labels versus exposure to 'higher fat' or equivalent labels or no equivalent labels; outcomeproduct consumption label [26,36,41,42]. Useable outcome data were available for meta-analysis from four independent comparisons from three of these RCTs [26,41,42]. ...
Background
Explicit labelling of lower strength alcohol products could reduce alcohol consumption by attracting more people to buy and drink such products instead of higher strength ones. Alternatively, it may lead to more consumption due to a ‘self-licensing’ mechanism. Equivalent labelling of food or tobacco (for example “Low fat” or “Low tar”) could influence consumption of those products by similar mechanisms. This systematic review examined the effects of ‘Low alcohol’ and equivalent labelling of alcohol, food and tobacco products on selection, consumption, and perceptions of products among adults.
Methods
A systematic review was conducted based on Cochrane methods. Electronic and snowball searches identified 26 eligible studies. Evidence from 12 randomised controlled trials (all on food) was assessed for risk of bias, synthesised using random effects meta-analysis, and interpreted in conjunction with evidence from 14 non-randomised studies (one on alcohol, seven on food and six on tobacco). Outcomes assessed were: quantities of the product (i) selected or (ii) consumed (primary outcomes - behaviours), (iii) intentions to select or consume the product, (iv) beliefs associated with it consumption, (v) product appeal, and (vi) understanding of the label (secondary outcomes – cognitions).
Results
Evidence for impacts on the primary outcomes (i.e. amounts selected or consumed) was overall of very low quality, showing mixed effects, likely to vary by specific label descriptors, products and population characteristics. Overall very low quality evidence suggested that exposure to ‘Low alcohol’ and equivalent labelling on alcohol, food and tobacco products can shift consumer perceptions of products, with the potential to ‘self-licence’ excess consumption.
Conclusions
Considerable uncertainty remains about the effects of labels denoting low alcohol, and equivalent labels, on alcohol, food and tobacco selection and consumption. Independent, high-quality studies are urgently needed to inform policies on labelling regulations.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3956-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
... Labels referencing food healthiness or fat-content were the subject of 16 studies. Seven studies identified that a low-fat/healthy label improved the taste or liking of cereal (Lapierre et al., 2011), candy (Irmak et al., 2011), milkshakes (Bowen et al., 2003), ice cream (Bowen et al., 1992), chocolate (Ebneter et al., 2013) or cookies (Soldavini et al., 2012), compared to when the same product was presented with a high-fat/unhealthy label. Without a measure of expectations to determine whether low-fat labels induced a positive expectation, the results of these studies could indicate sensation transfer or contrast. ...
... Eleven studies reported that the presence of label information changed the taste or liking of potato chips (Levis & Chambers, 1996), chocolate (Didier & Lucie, 2008;Ebneter et al., 2013), cookies (Cavanagh et al., 2014;Engell et al., 1998), ice cream (Parker & Penfield, 2005;Light et al., 1992), milk desserts (Vidal et al., 2013) and flavored milk (Kim et al., 2013;Shepherd et al., 1991/92). However, several reported that these effects were limited to, or differed across, different product samples (Didier & Lucie, 2008;Kim et al., 2013;Levis & Chambers, 1996;Parker & Penfield, 2005;Vidal et al., 2013), or were limited to particular sensory outcomes (Engell et al., 1998;Kim et al., 2013;Parker & Penfield, 2005). ...
... Additionally, many studies reported contradictory results. For instance, taste preference for chocolate was higher without a calorie label in Ebneter et al. (2013), though the flavor of cookies was rated lower without a calorie label compared to a low-calorie label (Cavanagh et al., 2014). Further, Kim, et al. (2013) found that organic milk was not rated differently in the presence or absence of an organic label, yet Didier and Lucie (2008) found that organic labeling improved ratings of chocolate relative to a blind condition and non-organic labeling decreased ratings of one product relative to a blind condition. ...
Extrinsic information, such as packaging, branding and labeling, can significantly alter our experience of food and drink through a process of ‘sensation transfer’, in which extrinsic attributes are transferred to our sensory perception of a product. The aim of this review was to summarize the literature on sensation transfer for unhealthy food and drink and to investigate personal factors that may influence its occurrence. Seventy-eight studies in 69 articles, published between 1966 and 2014 were identified which evaluated sensation transfer. Sixty-five of the 78 studies found an effect of extrinsic information on taste and/or hedonic outcomes, providing strong evidence for sensation transfer. The majority of studies identified that specific extrinsic information influenced particular products or specific sensory outcomes. Study designs incorporating a measure of expectation allowed a tighter assessment of sensation transfer. The results of such studies confirm the hypothesis that these effects occur when extrinsic information elicits an expectation of product taste, which then forms a framework to guide sensory perception. These studies also support the hypothesis that where sensation transfer does not occur, this is likely due to a mismatch between the expectations elicited by the extrinsic information and the sensory characteristics being measured, or the failure of the extrinsic information to elicit an expectation of taste for that product.
... A wide variety of studies across psychological domains have demonstrated the effects of important symbolic features presented in visual images of commercial advertisements (for a review, see [1]). For example, labeling safety or nutrition information with a photograph of food products consistently alters impressions of the advertised products or brands [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Notably, marketing researchers [9] have reported misperception of symbolic terms that refer to a product characteristic (e.g., a "fruit" symbolizing healthiness), so that the symbolized meaning supersedes the product's negative characteristics (e.g., high-calorie content of fruit sugar). ...
... These patterns can be attributed to the temporal congruence between a past-focused label and a shop with a traditional concept, in accordance with previous reports that materials consistent with conceptual and perceptual orientation aided in relevant information processing [12,15]. However, given that the mere presentation of a label can alter consumers' impressions of food shops or their products in the absence of congruence between the label and to-be-rated material [2][3][4][5][6][7][8], it was possible that the patterns of our results might be related to the mere presence of past-focused information, rather than temporal congruence. We ruled out this possibility by performing Experiments 4 and 5. ...
This study examined whether the presence of product information focused on a past era (e.g., year of establishment) improved consumers’ evaluations of a shop serving traditional products when the label and shop were congruent in terms of temporal focus. Across five experiments, participants viewed and evaluated advertisements from traditional food restaurants and shops that showed an old year of establishment. They showed favorable evaluations of the restaurants and food shops more frequently when a label focused on the past was displayed than when the label was absent or when a label focused on the present was displayed. Subsequent experiments indicated that this labeling effect was strongest when the label and shop were consistent in terms of traditional culture such that the year of establishment on the label showed the Japanese era name (Japan’s traditional date format) and was accompanied by Japanese classic foods. Importantly, in this study, qualitative domains were consistently improved more often than were ratings of visit intention and expected taste. The results suggest that temporal congruence between the label and restaurants rated plays an essential role in ensuring that these advertisements are effective in improving positive evaluations.
... Results demonstrated higher liking for samples labeled as high-protein and low-fat, with an all-natural claim leading to the lowest level of liking. Our findings support those of previous market research suggesting that consumers prefer high protein in yogurt samples, as well as work showing low-fat samples were rated as better tasting [17,23,40,41]. This consistency supports the importance of labels in determining food preference, ...
... Results demonstrated higher liking for samples labeled as high-protein and low-fat, with an all-natural claim leading to the lowest level of liking. Our findings support those of previous market research suggesting that consumers prefer high protein in yogurt samples, as well as work showing low-fat samples were rated as better tasting [17,23,40,41]. ...
As competition on super market shelves is higher than ever, the importance of product concepts, communicated through labels, can dictate a product’s success or failure. However, it is possible for labels to affect a consumer’s experience, changing the overall response to the product. In this study, we tested samples of vanilla yogurt with one of four commonly used labeling concepts (high-protein, low-fat, made with stevia and all-natural) on sensory perception, consumer liking, expected consumption amount, and willingness to pay (WTP) in a consumer test (n = 108). Each participant evaluated five samples of the same vanilla yogurt identified with one of the labels, or an unlabeled control. Results showed panelists liked the samples labeled with low-fat and high-protein to the greatest degree, with all-natural scoring the lowest. Those more concerned with protein content found the samples less satiating, dependent on sex. Sweetness was also perceived more highly in younger panelists, with panelists WTP dependent on their liking of the labels. Results highlight the importance of labeling as an extrinsic cue affecting liking ratings, with potential ramification for ultimate product success. Understanding consumers’ response to labels, as well as their attitudes, has broad implications for food marketing, as well as public health and the study of eating habits.
... For example, upon considering an item labeled as "reduced fat" consumers often assume the product to be lower in calories (Collins & Loftus, 1975;Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013). Even the mere presence of healthy foods within a meal (e.g., burger and salad) can lead consumers to believe the meal as a whole is lower in calories (Chernev & Gal, 2010). ...
... Adolescents were specifically targeted for this research, as the food industry spends $1.8 billion annually marketing to this group (Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, 2018). While health claims (Ebneter et al., 2013), the presence of healthy foods (Chernev & Gal, 2010) and depictions of physical activity (Castonguay, 2019;Harris et al., 2018) have all been shown to bias health perceptions, it appears that character weight does as well, at least for certain individuals. In response to RQ1, this study revealed that character weight does in fact bias health perceptions such that a cereal is perceived healthier when promoted by a heavier character. ...
Childhood obesity is a health epidemic. While we know that food advertising is impacting dietary perceptions of youth, we do not know all of the contributing factors. Health claims are used as heuristic cues, often misleading consumers to perceive foods as healthier than they otherwise would believe. This study investigates how the body weight of characters in advertising leads adolescents to perceive a cereal’s healthfulness and appeal. Findings suggest that higher BMI adolescents in particular believe a food to be healthier when promoted by a thin character. Conversely, females preferred heavier models, suggesting positive changes in regard to body image and stigmatization of those who are overweight. Potential explanations of these findings and avenues for further investigation are discussed.
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavor expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content (Ebneter et al., 2013;Engell et al., 1998;Kähkönen et al., 1999;Norton et al., 2013), salt content (Liem et al., 2012), health logo (Liem et al., 2012), cholesterol reducing (Kihlberg et al., 2005), and nutrition labels (Bayarri et al., 2010;Carrillo et al., 2012;Ebneter et al., 2013) could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. ...
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavor expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content (Ebneter et al., 2013;Engell et al., 1998;Kähkönen et al., 1999;Norton et al., 2013), salt content (Liem et al., 2012), health logo (Liem et al., 2012), cholesterol reducing (Kihlberg et al., 2005), and nutrition labels (Bayarri et al., 2010;Carrillo et al., 2012;Ebneter et al., 2013) could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. ...
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavour expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content (Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013;Engell, Bordi, Borja, Lambert, & Rolls, 1998;Kähkönen, Hakanpää, & Tuorila, 1999;Norton et al., 2013), salt content , health logo , cholesterol reducing (Kihlberg, Johansson, Langsrud, & Risvik, 2005) and nutrition labels (Bayarri, Carbonell, Barrios, & Costell, 2010;Ebneter et al., 2013) could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. ...
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavour expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content (Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013;Engell, Bordi, Borja, Lambert, & Rolls, 1998;Kähkönen, Hakanpää, & Tuorila, 1999;Norton et al., 2013), salt content , health logo , cholesterol reducing (Kihlberg, Johansson, Langsrud, & Risvik, 2005) and nutrition labels (Bayarri, Carbonell, Barrios, & Costell, 2010;Ebneter et al., 2013) could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. ...
Although scientists and industry apply sensory evaluation techniques to better understand and predict consumers’ product choice, 80 to 90% of new food products fail in the market. A possible explanation lies in the fact that consumers’ contribution in traditional sensory research is merely limited to the assessment of their overall liking on blind-labelled products performed in a controlled lab context. As a first step, this doctoral thesis examines the combination of emotional and sensory profiling by consumers for obtaining a better view on consumers’ food product experience. In order to facilitate such measurements, a new tool called the EmoSensory® Wheel has been developed and validated in this PhD. Secondly, three case studies were performed to study the impact of information and context on consumers’ food experience measured by this new tool. The first case study investigated the influence of health-related labels. The impact of content information (insect/vegetarian/meat) was examined in the second study. Lastly, the third case study explored the effect of brand information and context. The results illustrated the added value of including both emotional and sensory profiling tasks by consumers. Further, the case studies showed that the potential impact of the food stimuli presentation and context should be considered when setting up and interpreting results while conducting sensory research.
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavor expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content [8,[74][75][76], salt content [14], health logo [14], cholesterol reducing [77] and nutrition labels [76,78,79] could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. In the current study, the expected liking of any health label (light or reduced salt or light + reduced salt label) was significantly lower compared to the control label cheese. ...
... This study illustrated that health labels can influence consumers' flavor expectations of cheese. Several studies have found that health-related information like fat content [8,[74][75][76], salt content [14], health logo [14], cholesterol reducing [77] and nutrition labels [76,78,79] could alter consumers' expected acceptance of food products. In the current study, the expected liking of any health label (light or reduced salt or light + reduced salt label) was significantly lower compared to the control label cheese. ...
The global increase of cardiovascular diseases is linked to the shift towards unbalanced diets with increasing salt and fat intake. This has led to a growing consumers’ interest in more balanced food products, which explains the growing number of health-related claims on food products (e.g., “low in salt” or “light”). Based on a within-subjects design, consumers (n = 129) evaluated the same cheese product with different labels. Participants rated liking, saltiness and fat flavor intensity before and after consuming four labeled cheeses. Even though the cheese products were identical, inclusion of health labels influenced consumer perceptions. Cheese with a “light”
label had a lower overall expected and perceived liking compared to regular cheese. Although cheese with a “salt reduced” label had a lower expected liking compared to regular cheese, no lower liking was found when consumers actually consumed the labeled cheese. All labels also influenced the perceived intensities of the attributes related to these labels, e.g., for example salt intensity for reduced salt label. While emotional profiles of the labeled cheeses differed before tasting, little differences were found when actual tasting these cheeses. In conclusion, this study shows that health-related labels might influence the perceived flavor and emotional profiles of cheese products.
... Messages can be tailored to participant reported preferences to help encourage or motivate behavior change. Acknowledging preference and incorporating tailoring into physical activity and nutrition interventions has helped to encourage physical activity engagement [48][49][50][51], increase preference of healthy foods [44,[52][53][54][55], and decrease preference for less healthy foods [56,57]. Acceptability and usability of liking surveys with evidenced based tailored messages has been demonstrated in promoting behavior change in children and adolescents [31,32]. ...
We aimed to test the feasibility of an online survey and tailored message program in young women. Recruited from college campuses, women (n = 189) completed an online survey assessing preference for and behaviors toward diet and physical activity as well as theory-based influencers of these behaviors (knowledge/information, motivation, and confidence). Health messages were tailored to the participant’s survey responses and learning style to address misconceptions and motivate or reinforce healthy physical activity and dietary behaviors. Most women reported the survey as relevant (92%) and useful for reflecting on their health (83%), with survey responses variable in level of nutrition and physical activity knowledge, motivation, and confidence. Each woman received four tailored messages—most reported the messages as relevant (80%) and learning new information (60%). Across all messages, nearly half of the participants (~48%) reported willingness to try or maintain healthier behaviors and confidence in their ability. Body size discrepancy and dietary restraint had small effects message responses of information learned, and the motivation and confidence in trying healthier behaviors. In summary, these data support the feasibility of this online tailored message program. The college women found the tailored message program acceptable and useful to motivate healthier behaviors. The findings provide direction for behaviorally focused interventions to improve dietary and physical activity behaviors.
... As an example, the messages implied in FOPL based on 100 g of food products that should be consumed in much lower quantities for each eating occasion can result in the same products being perceived by consumers as more unfavorable or more favorable than their real nutritional role within the overall diet. This aspect cannot be disregarded, since it has been shown that the use of nutrition claims which are recognized as particularly favorable by consumers can increase their perceived healthfulness (18) and promote their purchase and consumption, especially in overweight subjects (19), and that FOP labeling had significantly stronger influence than nutrition claims on consumers' perceptions (20). ...
The adoption of supplementary nutrition information, i.e., front-of-pack labeling (FOPL), on pre-packed food products is advocated as a tool to improve the consumers' knowledge of the nutrient content or the nutritional quality of foods, but also to drive products reformulation by the food industry. Ultimately, FOPL should help people to select foods in order to compose an overall balanced diet, which is essential for health. However, the extent to which the different FOPL systems proposed in the European Union (EU) (interpretative or informative) are effectively able to convey the information useful to improve both food choices and dietary habits of the consumers is still under debate and needs to be analyzed in detail. The use of 3 FOPL schemes proposed within the EU (Nutri-Score, Keyhole and NutrInform Battery) to compare products available on the Italian market within different food categories, highlights some critical issues: (1) different FOPL provide to consumers different kinds of information; (2) systems based on similar theoretical approaches can provide conflicting information; (3) the algorithms on which interpretative FOPL are based can give the same summary information for products differing in nutrient composition, impact on the overall dietary balance and therefore on the health of people with different characteristics, physiological/pathological conditions, and nutritional requirements; (4) on the other hand, products with similar nutrient composition can obtain different interpretative FOPL; (5) informative systems are generally more complex and require greater both attention and knowledge from the consumer; (6) FOPL based on 100 g of product overlook the role of portion (and frequency of consumption) in determining the nutrient intake without informing on the contribution of a single food to the overall diet; (7) FOPL based on scoring systems could promote the reformulation of selected products, especially with a composition very close to the threshold limits; (8) for the portion-based informative FOPL systems, the incentive for reformulation could essentially involve the reduction of portion size. Finally, the importance of nutritional education interventions, which are required to encourage the use by consumers of informative FOPL systems, cannot be neglected to improve the quality of diets regardless of the FOPL used.
... 25 This can lead to poor food choices and additionally, a healthy diet may be compromised. 26 It is possible that the 'health halo effect' itself has led to the exponential rise in consumers adhering to a GFD without any formal medical diagnosis. ...
Background Over the past decade, the rise of consumers following a gluten-free diet has increased greatly. The majority of people following a gluten-free diet have not been diagnosed with coeliac disease or gluten or wheat intolerance but believe it to be a health benefit. Aim To assess the differences between gluten-free and gluten-containing products with regards to the implications this might have on oral (and wider) health. Method In total, 50 purposively selected products (25 gluten-free and gluten-containing pairs) available to UK consumers, classified using the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey food categories, were analysed using content analysis of food packaging. The European Union front-of-pack labelling system revealed the nutritional composition of each product, focusing on carbohydrates, sugars and energy. Cost and use of emotive language to market products was also assessed. Results A nutritional comparison of the 25 product pairings found that, on average, all gluten-free products contained more calories, total carbohydrates and total sugar. The majority of the gluten-free products were classified as 'confectionary' or 'baked goods,' emphasising that products primarily consisted of foods high in sugar. The average sugar per 100 g for each category of food ranged from 2.5-37.0 g/100 g (gluten-free) compared to 2.1-30 g/100 g (gluten-containing). All gluten-free products were considerably more expensive when compared with the conventional version; the average price difference ranged from £0.08 to £4.40. Conclusion This study emphasises the 'health halo' phenomena, where foods for special diets are regarded by consumers as healthy when in fact they are not. This results partly from the products being mainly high-sugar 'treats', which are not a core of the UK Eatwell Guide food-based dietary guidelines. As many people consuming gluten-free products in the UK do not need them from a medical perspective, this could have implications for oral and wider health. It is important that members of the dental team are aware of the possible implications of a gluten-free diet where it is not medically indicated, coupled with reliance on convenience foods. Consumers selecting gluten-free products who have not been diagnosed with coeliac disease or gluten or wheat intolerance, but erroneously believe gluten-free to be a health benefit, run the risk of consuming more energy and sugar by selecting gluten-free above gluten-containing products.Gluten-free manufacturers are using a 'health halo'; promoting foods using emotive words to market their products as 'good for you', despite high sugar and energy contents.It is important that members of the dental team are aware of the possible implications of a gluten-free diet where it is not medically indicated, coupled with reliance on convenience foods. Consumers selecting gluten-free products who have not been diagnosed with coeliac disease or gluten or wheat intolerance, but erroneously believe gluten-free to be a health benefit, run the risk of consuming more energy and sugar by selecting gluten-free above gluten-containing products. Gluten-free manufacturers are using a 'health halo'; promoting foods using emotive words to market their products as 'good for you', despite high sugar and energy contents. It is important that members of the dental team are aware of the possible implications of a gluten-free diet where it is not medically indicated, coupled with reliance on convenience foods.
... Consumers are inclined to develop positive overall perceptions based on salient but unrelated label information (Ebneter et al., 2013). This tendency is often referred to as the halo effect (Nisbett and Wilson, 1977). ...
Purpose
This study puts forth a consumer-oriented concept of clean labels and attempts to empirically investigate consumer perceptions of these labels.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administered survey ( n = 346) was used as the research instrument for data collection in the current study.
Findings
Results from an online survey indicate that consumers perceived less processed, elimination of undesired ingredients and ethical concerns as salient attributes associated with clean labels. Consumer-perceived benefits of these attributes include healthiness, social responsibility, sensory appeal, reliable product and low calorie. Additionally, canonical correlation analysis yields two significant associations between clean label attributes and the corresponding benefits. Attributes of elimination of undesired ingredients and utilization of familiar elements drive the benefits of healthiness, low calorie and social responsibility. Attributes of being less processed and with simple ingredients are associated with the benefit of sensory appeal.
Originality/value
This study systematically investigates the discrete clean halo effect by empirically examining the associations between the clean label attributes and the dimensionalities of benefits as perceived by consumers.
... This is in accordance with earlier studies, finding only small variations or no effect of NHCs on portion sizes (e.g. Benson et al., 2018;Crockett et al., 2014;Ebneter et al., 2013). The effects in this study were limited to health-neutral products, in which respondents in the positive claim condition tended to choose larger portions. ...
The impact of nutrition and health claims (NHCs) on consumers is unclear, and research in this field has provided incongruent results. By exploring the role of carrier products and claim types together with consumer characteristics this study sought to shed light on some of these contradictory results. Based on 1494 participants in an online choice experiment and portion-size experiment, the results revealed that the impact of NHCs on consumers is dependent on product and claim type, as well as consumer characteristics of perceived reward, compensatory beliefs, health motivation, subjective nutritional knowledge and weight-goals. In general, the choice of products carrying a claim was related to an increased perceived healthiness, health interest in food and a sense of reward associated with NHCs, but negatively related to subjective nutritional knowledge. Especially products perceived unhealthy with reduction claims were related to compensatory beliefs about being able to eat more of the claimed product. However, while compensatory beliefs seemed to have a small but consistent role in resulting in higher portion sizes, NHCs only played a minor role at best in portion-size decisions. Overall, the results suggest that consumer perceptions of types of claims and products need to be verified case-by-case, but some commonalities seem to exist when categorizing products according to their perceived healthiness and type of claims. Furthermore, consumers who are concerned about weight or are high in compensatory beliefs may be especially responsive to nutrition claims, while nutritional knowledge may act as a barrier against potential health halos associated with claims.
... Consumers may reduce calorie evaluations when they encounter product attributes that are seen as being correlated with low calories [52]. For example, low fat nutrition labels can lead to reduced calorie evaluations [53]. More generally, consumers underestimate calories in foods categorized as healthy [47,54,55]. ...
: Consumers’ calorie estimates are often biased and inaccurate. Even the presence of relevant nu-tritional information may not suffice to prevent consumer biases in calorie estimation. The cur-rent work demonstrates across two studies that visual cues given by larger product depictions lead to increased calorie estimates. Further, it demonstrates that these effects occur even when consumers are given, and notice, information about product quantity. The findings thus shed light on a novel biasing effect on consumer calorie evaluation, and, more generally, the findings provide evidence for the importance of visual inputs over textual ones in consumers’ nutritional assessment of food products. In this, the current research provides insights relevant to helping nutritional literacy via awareness of biasing influences on caloric assessment. In the same man-ner, the research also provides insights that may assist the regulator protecting consumers by highlighting factors biasing nutritional assessment.
... Thus, it is still unknown whether consumers use the fair trade label to make broader, more global health attributions. Indeed, there are circumstances in which health attributions and calorie estimations may be impacted differently (Ebneter et al., 2013). More importantly, their work also demonstrates an effect of social ethics descriptors on frequency of consumption (e.g., "Compared to other brands of chocolate, how often do you think that Petersen's chocolate should be eaten? 1 = less often, 7 = more often). ...
The purpose of fair trade certification is to assure consumers that products support responsible companies, empower farmers, workers, and fisherman, and protect the environment. Yet, could it be possible that consumers infer greater healthfulness of foods containing such labels, and subsequently increase their consumption of fair trade certified foods? Across three studies, we demonstrate that fair trade labels can increase consumption by 26% to 31%. In study 1, we demonstrate that individuals consume more if the food product contains a fair trade label. In the subsequent studies we home in on the underlying process, demonstrating that the effect is mediated by the product’s perceived healthfulness (study 2 and 3) To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that (1) tests the effects of fair trade labels from third party certifiers in package-based experiments, (2) examines the effects of fair trade labels on consumption, and (3) directly tests an overall health halo—perceived healthfulness—as the underlying process. In doing so, this research contributes to the values-based labeling and health halo literatures, while offering implications for public policy makers, consumers, and food marketers.
... It has been shown that people can accurately evaluate energy and macronutrients from food appearance, to a certain extent, although extrinsic factors (e.g. labels) bias caloric estimation (Roberto et al. 2010;Chandon and Wansink 2007;Ebneter, Latner, and Nigg 2013;Schuldt and Schwarz 2010). Previous research found that subjective estimation of calories from food images was significantly correlated with actual calorie content (Foroni et al. 2013;Charbonnier et al. 2016;Brunstrom et al. 2018). ...
Many food decisions are made rapidly and without reflective processing. The ability to determine nutritional information accurately is a precursor of food decisions and is important for a healthy diet and weight management. However, little is known about the cognitive evaluation of food attributes based on visual information in relation to assessing nutritional content. We investigated the accuracy of visual encoding of nutritional information after brief and extended time exposures to food images. The following questions were addressed: (1) how accurately do people estimate energy and macronutrients after brief exposure to food images, and (2) how does estimation accuracy change with time exposure and the type of nutritional information? Participants were first asked to rate the energy density (calories) and macronutrient content (carbohydrates/fat/protein) of different sets of food images under three time conditions (97, 500 or 1000 ms) and then asked to perform the task with no time constraints. We calculated estimation accuracy by computing the correlations between estimated and actual nutritional information for each time exposure and compared estimation accuracy with respect to the type of nutritional information and the exposure time. The estimated and actual energy densities and individual macronutrient content were significantly correlated, even after a brief exposure time (97 ms). The degree of accuracy of the estimations did not differ with additional time exposure, suggesting that <100 ms was sufficient to predict the energy and macronutrients from food images. Additionally, carbohydrate estimates were less accurate than the estimates of other nutritional variables (proteins, fat and calories), regardless of the exposure time. These results revealed rapid and accurate assessment of food attributes based on visual information and the accuracy of visual encoding of nutritional information after brief and extended time exposure to food imagery.
... It is equally important to note, however, that the overall nutrient values are still too high for most menu items, regardless of dietary label. Research has shown that people perceive foods with labels such as 'gluten-free', 'vegetarian', 'low-fat' or 'low-carb' as generally healthier and/or lower in energy (45)(46)(47)(48) , which is in line with the health halo effect of such labels (49) . But diners who order a small plate and main dish among alternative diet items can still consume up to 4184 kJ (1000 kcal) and over half of the daily recommended Na value in one meal, not including drinks and desserts. ...
Objective
To examine the prevalence and nutrient composition of menu offerings targeted to customers with dietary restrictions at U.S. fast casual and full-service chain restaurants.
Design
We used 2018 data from MenuStat, a database of nutrient information for menu items at large U.S. chain restaurants. Five alternative diets were examined: gluten-free, low-calorie, low-carbohydrate, low-fat, and vegetarian. Diet offerings were identified by searching MenuStat item descriptions and reviewing online menus. For each diet, we reported counts and proportions. We used bootstrapped multilevel models to examine differences in predicted mean kilojoules, saturated fat, Na, and sugars between diet and non-diet menu items.
Setting
45 U.S. fast casual and full-service chain restaurants in 2018 (including 6419 items in initial analytic sample across small plates, salads, and main dishes).
Participants
None.
Results
The most prevalent diets were gluten-free (n=631, 9.8% of menu items), low-calorie (n=306, 4.8%), and vegetarian (n=230, 3.6%). Compared to non-diet counterparts, low-calorie main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients examined, and vegetarian main dishes had significantly lower levels of all nutrients except saturated fat. Gluten-free small plates had significantly fewer kilojoules, grams of saturated fat, and milligrams of Na compared to non-diet small plates.
Conclusions
A small proportion of fast casual and full-service restaurant menus are targeted toward customers with dietary restrictions. Compared to non-diet items, those classified as gluten-free, low-calorie, or vegetarian generally have healthier nutrient profiles, but overall nutrient values are still too high for most menu items, regardless of dietary label.
... Scholars have suggested that people will be more successful in controlling their food intake if relevant information is accessible and if they are conscious of the costs of consumption when making decisions (Trudel, Murray, Kim, & Chen, 2015). Different types of nutritional information could result in different perceptions; fat information may be a stronger determinant of the evaluation of the healthiness of a product than calorie information (Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013). ...
... Preliminary work from our group has shown that doing the PALS online is acceptable in children and parents, is reported to stimulate self-reflection on diet and activity behaviors, can generate immediate tailored feedback on diet quality and healthy behaviors [90]. Preferences can change, including in response to marketing of unhealthy foods [91] as well as with interventions to improve preference for healthy foods [92][93][94][95] and decrease preference for less healthy foods [83,96]. ...
Clinical settings need rapid yet useful methods to screen for diet and activity behaviors for brief interventions and to guide obesity prevention efforts. In an urban pediatric emergency department, these behaviors were screened in children and parents with the 33-item Pediatric-Adapted Liking Survey (PALS) to assess the reliability and validity of a Healthy Behavior Index (HBI) generated from the PALS responses. The PALS was completed by 925 children (average age = 11 ± 4 years, 55% publicly insured, 37% overweight/obese by Body Mass Index Percentile, BMI-P) and 925 parents. Child–parent dyads differed most in liking of vegetables, sweets, sweet drinks, and screen time. Across the sample, child and parent HBIs were variable, normally distributed with adequate internal reliability and construct validity, revealing two dimensions (less healthy—sweet drinks, sweets, sedentary behaviors; healthy—vegetables, fruits, proteins). The HBI showed criterion validity, detecting healthier indexes in parents vs. children, females vs. males, privately- vs. publicly-health insured, and residence in higher- vs. lower-income communities. Parent’s HBI explained some variability in child BMI percentile. Greater liking of sweets/carbohydrates partially mediated the association between low family income and higher BMI percentile. These findings support the utility of PALS as a dietary behavior and activity screener for children and their parents in a clinical setting.
... Using shortcuts based on contextual information for verbal more than numerical quantifiers thus has further implications on everyday food decisions. If verbal quantifiers increase people's tendency to judge unhealthy amounts of "good" food as healthy, this could lead to overconsumption of these foods (Ebneter et al., 2013;Gravel et al., 2012;Wansink & Chandon, 2006). Our findings suggest that numerical quantifiers are less susceptible to these contextual influences, but contrary to previous beliefs (Malam et al., 2009), they do not necessarily require more effort or time to process. ...
(Manuscript forthcoming in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology; accepted, in press.)
Verbal and numerical formats (e.g., verbal: ‘low fat’, or numerical: ‘20% fat’) are used interchangeably to communicate nutritional information. However, prior research implies that verbal quantifiers are processed more intuitively than numerical ones. We tested this hypothesis in two pre-registered experiments measuring four indicators of processing style: (i) response time, (ii) decision performance, (iii) reliance on irrelevant contextual information, which we inferred from participants’ decision patterns, and (iv) the level of interference from a concurrent memory task. Participants imagined they had consumed a given amount of a nutrient (represented in a pie chart) and decided whether a new quantity (either verbal or numerical) could be eaten within their guideline daily amount (GDA). The experiments used a mixed design varying format (verbal or numerical), concurrent memory load (no load, easy, and hard load in Experiment 1; no load and hard load in Experiment 2), nutrient (fat and minerals), quantity (low, medium, and high in Experiment 1; low and high in Experiment 2), and the assigned correct response for a trial (within and exceeding limits). Participants were faster and made fewer correct decisions with verbal quantifiers, and they relied more on contextual information (i.e., the identity of the nutrient involved). However, memory load did not impair decisions with verbal or numerical quantifiers. Altogether, these results suggest that verbal quantifiers are processed intuitively, slightly more so than numerical quantifiers, but that numerical quantifiers do not require much analytical processing to reach simple decisions.
... In addition, research has suggested that individuals underestimate the calorie-content of low-fat foods (Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013), and may enjoy eating these foods less than their equivalents that are not marketed as low-fat (Ng, Stice, Yokum, & Bohon, 2011), thus potentially amplifying dietary restriction. In this way, claims that foods are lower in calories or more healthy may influence individuals' food choices in ways that are paradoxically unhelpful, lead to increased restriction, cravings and loss-of-control eating (Schulte et al., 2015), and thereby increasing the risk of eating disorders. ...
Policy and legislation have emerged as important levers for universal prevention efforts in the context of eating disorders. However, to date, little attention has been paid to generating research that will inform opportunities to regulate the food environment, specifically the way that food is produced and marketed. The present paper aims to lay out a framework for research that will examine (1) the ways in which food industry may influence risk for eating disorders and (2) the impact of legislative efforts on eating disorder cognitions and behaviors. For these two pathways, specific examples of research that would serve to inform policy efforts aiming to decrease the risk for eating disorders by targeting the food environment are proposed. Overall, the present paper aims to issue a call for the eating disorder field to become involved in food policy and regulation.
... Following previous methods e.g. [34,35], to ensure that observed differences were the result of the brand variant manipulation, 17 participants were excluded because they were deemed not to have been paying attention to the brand name manipulation (i.e. they could not remember the order in which they smoked the branded and masked cigarettes or could not remember the brand name of the cigarette that they were given in the branded condition). One further participant was excluded due to incomplete data. ...
Background:
Few studies have experimentally assessed the contribution of branding to the experience of smoking a cigarette, compared with the inherent properties of the product. This study examined the influence of cigarette brand name on the sensory experience of smoking a cigarette.
Methods:
Seventy-five Australian smokers aged 18-39 years smoked two 'premium' cigarettes, one with the brand variant name shown and one with the brand variant name masked (which provided 'objective' ratings). Unknown to participants, the two cigarettes were identical. At recruitment, participants rated their expected enjoyment, quality and harshness of several premium cigarette brands.
Results:
Branded cigarettes were rated as having a significantly more favorable taste (M(SE) = 64.14(2.21)) than masked cigarettes (M(SE) = 58.53(2.26), p = .031). Branded cigarettes were also rated as being less stale (M(SE) = 36.04(2.62)) than masked cigarettes (M(SE) = 43.90(2.60), p = .011). Purchase intent tended to be higher among those shown the branded cigarette compared to the masked cigarette (χ2(1) = 3.00, p = .083). Expected enjoyment and quality of the brand variant (enjoyment: b = 0.31, 95%CI = 0.11, 0.51, p < .01; quality: b = 0.46, 95%CI = 0.21, 0.72, p < .01) contributed to the perceived smoking experience more than the objective enjoyment and quality of the cigarette (enjoyment: b = 0.23, 95%CI = 0.05, 0.41, p < .05; quality: b = 0.08, 95%CI = - 0.13, 0.30, p > .05). This pattern was not observed for cigarette harshness.
Conclusions:
A premium brand variant name can enhance the subjective experience of a cigarette. Further, smokers' expectations of such brand variants contribute to the smoking experience as much, if not more than, the actual qualities of the product.
... However, the bioavailability of fatsoluble vitamins should not be reduced or limited by the addition of low-fat alternatives. There are two types of lipids replacers with different chemical structures: carbohydrate-based and protein-based fat substitutes [Sahan et al. 2008, Martin et al. 2011, Ng et al. 2011, Ebneter et al. 2013. The aim of this study was to assess the positive and negative aspects of fat replacers (mainly plant replacers) and whether they have a place in the daily diet. ...
Carbohydrate and protein replacers of fat are frequently used by food manufacturers in response to the increased risk of diseases, which are connected with oversupply of energy and lipids in the diet. Low-calorie replacers such as inulin can limit hunger and normalize blood cholesterol levels. Increases in the nutritional value of food products can be achieved by partially replacing fat by soy protein isolates. Amino acids and deficient minerals like calcium and iron can be provided by food containing protein-based fat substitutes. Some fat substitutes, like maltodextrin, can slightly reduce the bioavailability of the fat-soluble vitamins. As a result, food products containing maltodextrin should be fortified with the affected substances to reduce the risk of malnutrition. The long-term effects of carbohydrate and protein replacers on the human body have not been sufficiently explained, and so fat replacers should be limited in the daily diet.
... Nutrition claims can also be misunderstood, which may lead to misleading inferences or unexpected eating behaviors. For example, a recent study showed that a low-fat-labeled candy was perceived healthier than a regularlabeled candy, independent of caloric information [14]. It is also recognized that low-fat claims can lead consumers to overconsumption [15]. ...
Nutrition claims may help people to adopt healthier eating habits, but little is known about the potential cognitive effects of such claims on appetite sensations. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of nutrition claims and individual factors on perceived appetite sensations. According to a three (“healthy” versus “diet” (i.e., satiating) versus “hedonic”) by two (restrained or not restrained) by two (normal-weight or overweight/obese) by two (men versus women) factorial design, 164 males and 188 females aged 18–65 were invited to taste an oatmeal-raisin snack in a blinded and ad libitum context. Visual analog scales (150 mm) were used to evaluate appetite sensations before and over 1 h after consumption period. BMI and Restraint Scale were used to categorize participants according to their weight and restraint status. No main condition effect was observed for any of the four appetite sensations. However, subgroups analysis revealed significant differences among specific subgroups. A main effect of sex was also observed for all appetite sensations with men reporting higher levels of desire to eat, hunger and prospective food consumption, and lower levels of fullness than women. These findings highlight the importance of considering individual characteristics in interaction when studying appetite sensations.
... While the proliferation of lower-fat alternatives might be beneficial for individuals who tend to make healthier food choices when given the opportunity to do so, experimental research unequivocally shows that these low-fat claims may actually backfire and increase the quantity and caloric value of single-occasion low-fat as well as regular food intake (Belei, Geyskens, Goukens, Ramanathan, & Lemmink, 2012;Geyskens, Pandelaere, Dewitte, & Warlop, 2007;Wansink & Chandon, 2006). This is mainly due to the fact that consumers tend to perceive these low-fat snacks as less dangerous to the long-term health goal (Andrews, Netemeyer, & Burton, 1998;Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013), and believe that they can indulge without implications on their health (Finkelstein & Fishbach, 2010;Fishbach & Dhar, 2005;Fishbach & Zhang, 2008;Wilcox, Vallen, Block, & Fitzsimons, 2009). Prior experimental research thus seems to point to an immediate "boomerang effect" of low-fat claims to the extent that they may actually increase a consumers' total snack consumption in terms of volume and calories. ...
Health organizations stimulate the development of low-fat variants to fight the obesity epidemic. We examine the effectiveness of this policy by studying the short- and long-term consequences of the first low-fat purchase on subsequent purchased volume and calories. Using a structural break analysis, we show that purchases increase in the short run after the first low-fat purchase, thereby confirming the single-occasion overconsumption effect of low-fat as shown in the experimental literature. Importantly, our results also show a significant positive long-term effect, which suggests that overpurchasing persists in the long run. In addition, our findings show that the long-term overpurchasing after the first low-fat purchase is solely due to the overpurchasing of low-fat items and not of regular items. These results provide support for the overgeneralization of claim effects and habit formation resulting in the enduring effect of healthier variants of unhealthy food.
... The effects of subjective consumption cues were also demonstrated, suggesting that individuals tend to engage in overgeneralizations following claims about nutrient content (see Andrews, Netemeyer, & Burton, 1998). For example, a "low-fat" label can lead to the underestimation of calories, the overestimation of the appropriate serving size and to an increase in the actual consumption of the product (Ebneter, Latner, & Nigg, 2013;Wansink & Chandon, 2006). ...
Organic claims can influence how a product is perceived in dimensions that are unrelated with the food production method (e.g., organic food is perceived as more healthful and less caloric than conventional food). Such claims can also bias how the consumers of organic food are perceived and how other people judge their behavior. Schuldt and Schwarz (2010) have shown that individuals evaluating a target with a weight-loss goal are more lenient in judging the target forgoing exercise when the target had an organic (vs. conventional) dessert. This impact of organic claims on leniency judgments has been interpreted either as a halo or a licensing effect. In the current research we aim to replicate and extend Schuldt and Schwarz's (2010) results by examining the mechanisms that are more likely to explain the observed leniency judgments. In Experiment 1, we observed that leniency towards a target that has consumed an organic meal is only observed when the target intentionally chooses such organic meal (vs. choice determined by the situation). These findings suggest that the impact of organic claims on leniency judgments is not merely based on a halo effect. Instead, a licensing account emerges as the most probable mechanism. In Experiment 2, we further found that stronger (vs. weaker) motives for forgoing exercise influenced leniency judgments to the same extent as having had an organic meal. Understanding the mechanisms that shape consumers’ decisions may have important implications to prevent bias in their judgments about food and exercise.
... low-fat label) can mislead consumers about other important nutritional elements, e.g., energy content and portion sizes (Faulkner et al., 2014). The 'health halo' effect can also lead to some undesired behavioral effects such as increased consumption and poor caloric estimates (Ebneter, Latner & Nigg, 2013). Marketers tap into the perceived healthfullness which reflects, besides the increased production cost of GF products, in the overall higher cost of GF products. ...
Notwithstanding a growth in popularity and consumption of gluten-free (GF) food products, there is a lack of substantiated analysis of the nutritional quality compared with their gluten-containing counterparts. To put GF foods into proper perspective both for those who need it (patients with celiac disease) and for those who do not, we provide contemporary data about cost and nutritional quality of GF food products. The objective of this study is to develop a food composition database for seven discretionary food categories of packaged GF products. Nutrient composition, nutritional information and cost of foods from 63 GF and 126 gluten-containing counterparts were systematically obtained from 12 different Austrian supermarkets. The nutrition composition (macro and micronutrients) was analyzed by using two nutrient composition databases in a stepwise approximation process. A total of 63 packaged GF foods were included in the analysis representing a broad spectrum of different GF categories (flour/bake mix, bread and bakery products, pasta and cereal-based food, cereals, cookies and cakes, snacks and convenience food). Our results show that the protein content of GF products is >2 fold lower across 57% of all food categories. In 65% of all GF foods, low sodium content was observed (defined as <120 mg/100 g). Across all GF products, 19% can be classified as source high in fiber (defined as >6g/100 g). On average, GF foods were substantially higher in cost, ranging from +205% (cereals) to +267% (bread and bakery products) compared to similar gluten-containing products. In conclusion, our results indicate that for GF foods no predominant health benefits are indicated; in fact, some critical nutrients must be considered when being on a GF diet. For individuals with celiac disease, the GF database provides a helpful tool to identify the food composition of their medical diet. For healthy consumers, replacing gluten-containing products with GF foods is aligned with substantial cost differences but GF foods do not provide additional health benefits from a nutritional perspective.
People in developed countries have access to healthier food options. However, there is also an increasing availability of energy‐dense foods. While energy‐dense foods play a major role in food accessibility, their prevalence also escalates the obesogenic environment. This paper aims to understand the role of cognitive biases on food consumption from the view of calorie underestimation. Specifically, the study examines how consumers perceive food calorie content and how consumers interpret the claims on food packaging. 525 UK respondents were asked to evaluate five different food combinations. The average calorie estimations for each meal were compared with their actual calorie contents to identify underestimation/overestimation. T ‐test was conducted, and logistic regression and linear regression were estimated. The results show that heuristic is often adopted in food selection. Foods are categorised into vice and virtue according to the different goals they support. The existence of virtue food options (e.g., fruit and vegetable) reduces the perceived calorie content of the meal. Likewise, nutrition and health claims such as low‐fat and zero‐sugar also decrease the calorie estimation, especially when the labelled food is unhealthy. Considering overeating is a consequence of calorie underestimation, consumers' knowledge of nutritional quality needs to be improved.
While hunger and micronutrient deficiencies remain a persistent problem affecting millions worldwide, obesity has also become a global epidemic. Despite an on-going debate regarding whether the substantial public expenditures on medical and health measures resulting from poor diets warrant policy interventions, the United States and Europe have seen a dramatic rise in policies designed to influence consumer diets over the last two decades. We provide a summary of the underlying arguments for addressing this issue via policy and complement this with a review of the existing literature on a variety of demand-side oriented policies, including nutritional labeling policies, fiscal policies, child-focused policies, and place-based policies. We point out how results are often contradictory and inconclusive partially due to the approach that was taken by the researcher in the analysis of the policy. This issue of robust findings leads us to a discussion of different data and methods typically used in economics to make inferences about the efficacy of policies. We follow-up on this by providing insights from the behavioral economics literature, which offers policy solutions that have the potential to complement more traditional policy designs. In a last step we provide an outlook and recommendations for future research directions.
Although several studies have investigated the influence of nutrition labelling on food intake, the effect of labels indicating a food's satiating power on food intake and sensory-specific satiation (SSS) is poorly understood. We investigated whether providing information about the satiating power of a meal affects intake and SSS. Participants (19 men and 18 women) consumed the same test meal of pasta salad ad libitum on two occasions, once described as ‘light’ and once as ‘filling’. SSS was determined as the change in liking of the flavor and desire to eat the test meal before and after consumption, compared to seven uneaten foods. As hypothesized, intake increased by a mean (±SD) of 31 ± 59 grams and 42 ± 81 kcal when the meal was labelled ‘light’ as opposed to ‘filling’ (p < 0.01). After eating, ratings for both liking and desire to eat decreased significantly more for the test meal than for the control foods (p < 0.001), demonstrating SSS. These relative changes in liking and desire to eat did not differ between the label conditions, despite differences in intake. Furthermore, accounting for amount consumed, the magnitude of SSS did not differ between the label conditions, which suggests that it did not explain the effect of the labels on intake. This study shows that labels indicating the satiating power of a meal can affect intake, warranting caution in the use of such labels on products intended to reduce intake.
In today’s scenario of business, there is huge competition in business. Though there
are increased business opportunities because of globalization but still it lead to much
complexities in monitoring the workforce’s performance. Food delivery apps are not
just cutting our human-to-human contacts while delivery but also introducing us to try
new restaurants and foods. We just simply enter our location and these apps show us
thousands of restaurants that we can try without leaving our recliner or couch. We came
across our favourite food delivery apps that bring yumminess and deliciousness rights
to our door-steps.
Digital Food Apps Services are basically the designed websites primarily used in
food delivery industries. These apps help restaurants to reduce their manpower costs
and increasing their scope of business and making a profit. With just a few clicks of
fingers, customers can browse and place their orders of choice from the nearby
restaurants. This study aims to analyse that how food buying preferences have been
changed by customers by using internet and to identify their related factors which are
associated with them and how consumers are concerned for food safety information of
online food items.
Customer-Satisfaction is basically the subject of how an individual, group of people
or organizations choose, take, use and dispose of ideas, products, and services to satisfy
their requirements and needs. It says about the activity of the customers in the market
areas and the motives which are underlying for their activities.
This research study must focus on the move of customer’s perceptions with the
evolvement of technologies and the various types of apps that consumers are contented
with and which makes them smiling about that particular facility. The primary
objectives of this report are to know the relationship among the provided services and
the buying nature of the consumer. Next is to discover out the most accepted apps in the Attainment of Customer’s Satisfaction in Digital Food Apps Industry Through Result-Oriented Management food transporting industries and to know how technologies have created a vital task in food industries.
Result-oriented management is a tool that makes the employee’s more motivated and productive by improving their competencies and skills. It is the systematic process of
monitoring and supervising the role of employee so that they can achieve the
organizational objectives in most efficient and effective ways. For example, now a days
in digital food apps service, performance management of employees are priotized and
hence many customers are ordering food online. This way, companies are also making
profit In India, the market-size of food is predicted to succeed in Rs. 42.00 lakh crores
by the year 2020, as BCG reports. The Indian foodstuff is around $ 350.00 billion
presently.
Happiness is the psychological state of well-being categorized by enjoyable and
beneficial feeling ranges from satisfaction to extreme containment. To be happy at work
place, it is important to give support and vice-versa from our colleagues. By helping
others, we are more connected to them and are happier.
The four major pointers of result-oriented management in this modern globalized
business scenario are: mutual understanding, procedural integrity, respect for
employees and transparent decision –making. The five major components of
performance management are: Result-oriented planning, understanding the
expectations of customers, feed-back and coaching, rewarding good performer, and
plans for performance improvement.
Key words: digital food apps; globalization; business scenario; result-oriented
management; customer’s satisfaction.
This article aims to understand how and why a separated serving style of food (i.e., serving foods based on ingredient while maintaining their separation with no sides touching on a plate) influences calorie estimates and eating behavior. Results from two studies show that participants significantly underestimate the calorie content of their food and decrease food consumption in a separated (vs. mixed) serving style. Separate‐style foodservice calls attention to the act of eating and serves as a tool to facilitate weight management. In our studies, participants demonstrated a belief that separated (vs. mixed) food serving has the capacity to affect weight (rather than health attributes) and thereby influences calorie estimates. Even with unhealthy (e.g., fried snacks) foods, the separated serving style still makes the food appear less caloric, and increases self‐monitoring. In other words, the self‐monitoring that results from the serving of foods separately creates an anchoring effect, which decreases overall food consumption. This circumstance suggests that the visual arrangement of food intake has potential implications for food consumption and weight management.
Practical applications
In an era of increasing obesity and the erosion of healthy eating habits, it is important to identify factors that can help people maintain both a healthier weight and diet. Our findings are particularly concerned with food serving design. Given that the separate intake of foods can lower one's caloric estimates of the serving, marketing personnel would do well to formulate strategies with this in mind. These findings further emphasize the potential impact of a visual separation of foods on consumers' eating behavior. The separated serving style could be a way of increasing self‐monitoring in order to control one's food intake. While previous research supports children's preference for food arranged in a separated serving style to allow for personal eating habits, no study has yet examined the effects (e.g., food evaluation and eating behavior) of a separated serving style among adults. Especially for dieters, adults tend to arrange their meals in a separated serving style. With preexisting evidence of the positive effects of a separate serving style in mind, this article expands the application of this food style to devise an effective strategy for an active and consistent reduction of unhealthy food consumption.
Purpose
Past research has demonstrated a health halo for food product labels (e.g. organic), resulting in inflated perceptions of a product’s healthfulness (e.g. low fat). While past studies have focused on labeling and related health claims, the health halo of brand names has scarcely been investigated. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the health halo of brand names featuring morality- and purity-signifiers.
Design/methodology/approach
The current research uses two experiments to examine the health halo of morality- and purity-signifying brand names on perceptions of nutritional and contaminant attributes. Mediation analysis is performed to investigate perceived naturalness as the mechanism for the brand name effects while moderated mediation analysis examines this mechanism across product types (healthy vs unhealthy).
Findings
The findings reveal that both the morality- and purity-signifying brand names produce a health halo on nutritional and contaminant attributes, regardless of product healthiness. Further, mediation and moderated mediation analysis provide evidence for perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism driving these effects.
Social implications
This research highlights unwarranted consumer inferences made based upon food brand names and, thus has implications for consumers, public policy and marketing managers.
Originality/value
While much health halo research has focused on labeling, this research examines the health halo of two brand name types which symbolically convey either morality or purity. This research provides additional contributions by investigating perceived naturalness as the underlying mechanism for the effects and is one of the few studies to investigate the health halo for both healthy and unhealthy products.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect of involvement in food preparation on estimated calorie content, perception of portion size and desirability of the food item.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypotheses, three between-subjects experiments (one online, two in a laboratory setting) were conducted. Across the three experiments, participants were presented with a food item either ready for consumption (low involvement) or with the individual ingredients in need of assembly prior to consumption (high involvement).
Findings
Results showed that when a consumer is involved in the preparation of their food, they perceive the food to be lower in calories and smaller in portion size than when the same food is presented fully prepared and ready-to-eat. In addition, the effect of food preparation involvement on perception of portion size has negative downstream consequences on food desirability, as a smaller perceived portion resulted in a less desirable food item.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, the results of this research are the first to focus on the impact of preparation involvement on perceptions of the specific product attributes of calorie content and portion size, and the downstream effect on desirability.
This research investigated inferences consumers make about restaurants that market their use of locally sourced food (LSF) ingredients using the halo effect as a theoretical foundation. Food produced and sold within a certain geographical radius (typically under 400 miles) is considered LSF. Hypothesized was that simply labelling a restaurant as using LSF would create a positive halo effect (a positive perceptual bias) and promote beliefs about the restaurant’s attributes that were unrelated to LSF. The results of an experiment with 313 participants suggest that LSF labeling in restaurants produces a positive halo effect. Participants assumed that a restaurant using LSF was more environmentally friendly, served a healthier/more nutritious menu, was more conveniently located, and was more likely to use natural/organic ingredients than was a similar restaurant that did not use LSF. Additionally, participants’ food-related lifestyles were significant moderators, with those most concerned about (1) the healthiness of the food they eat, and (2) the joy they get from eating and socializing over food, being most strongly influenced by the positive LSF-halo. Overall, the results indicate that restaurants may benefit from the positive glow created from the halo effect of sourcing food locally.
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate inferences consumers make about organic and all-natural labeled products in both food and non-food contexts using the health halo effect as a theoretical foundation.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses three experiments to test the effects of organic and all-natural labeling across three product types, food, personal hygiene and household cleaning, while controlling for environmental attitudes.
Findings
The results of the experiments in the context of food, personal hygiene and household cleaning products suggest that both organic and all-natural labeling produce halo effects. Distinct findings are presented across the three product types.
Research limitations/implications
Findings indicate that consumers may make unwarranted inferences about both organic and all-natural labeled products and demonstrates that the health halo effect is a potentially robust phenomenon, pervasive across a diverse array of products. This research used a crowdsourcing platform for sample recruitment. Future research should validate the results of these experiments with other sample types.
Practical implications
This research suggests that consumers may make similar unwarranted inferences for diverse products bearing organic and all-natural labels. These inferences are particularly intriguing given the differing regulatory requirements for the labels
Originality/value
Organic and all-natural labels are ubiquitous in both food and non-food products. However, research on either label primarily exists in a food context and has not directly compared the labels. Understanding the inferences consumers make based on the labels across product types is imperative for both marketing and public policy.
Background:
Nutritional labelling is advocated as a means to promote healthier food purchasing and consumption, including lower energy intake. Internationally, many different nutritional labelling schemes have been introduced. There is no consensus on whether such labelling is effective in promoting healthier behaviour.
Objectives:
To assess the impact of nutritional labelling for food and non-alcoholic drinks on purchasing and consumption of healthier items. Our secondary objective was to explore possible effect moderators of nutritional labelling on purchasing and consumption.
Search methods:
We searched 13 electronic databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE and Embase to 26 April 2017. We also handsearched references and citations and sought unpublished studies through websites and trials registries.
Selection criteria:
Eligible studies: were randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials (RCTs/Q-RCTs), controlled before-and-after studies, or interrupted time series (ITS) studies; compared a labelled product (with information on nutrients or energy) with the same product without a nutritional label; assessed objectively measured purchasing or consumption of foods or non-alcoholic drinks in real-world or laboratory settings.
Data collection and analysis:
Two authors independently selected studies for inclusion and extracted study data. We applied the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' tool and GRADE to assess the quality of evidence. We pooled studies that evaluated similar interventions and outcomes using a random-effects meta-analysis, and we synthesised data from other studies in a narrative summary.
Main results:
We included 28 studies, comprising 17 RCTs, 5 Q-RCTs and 6 ITS studies. Most (21/28) took place in the USA, and 19 took place in university settings, 14 of which mainly involved university students or staff. Most (20/28) studies assessed the impact of labelling on menus or menu boards, or nutritional labelling placed on, or adjacent to, a range of foods or drinks from which participants could choose. Eight studies provided participants with only one labelled food or drink option (in which labelling was present on a container or packaging, adjacent to the food or on a display board) and measured the amount consumed. The most frequently assessed labelling type was energy (i.e. calorie) information (12/28).Eleven studies assessed the impact of nutritional labelling on purchasing food or drink options in real-world settings, including purchases from vending machines (one cluster-RCT), grocery stores (one ITS), or restaurants, cafeterias or coffee shops (three RCTs, one Q-RCT and five ITS). Findings on vending machines and grocery stores were not interpretable, and were rated as very low quality. A meta-analysis of the three RCTs, all of which assessed energy labelling on menus in restaurants, demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of 47 kcal in energy purchased (MD -46.72 kcal, 95% CI -78.35, -15.10, N = 1877). Assuming an average meal of 600 kcal, energy labelling on menus would reduce energy purchased per meal by 7.8% (95% CI 2.5% to 13.1%). The quality of the evidence for these three studies was rated as low, so our confidence in the effect estimate is limited and may change with further studies. Of the remaining six studies, only two (both ITS studies involving energy labels on menus or menus boards in a coffee shop or cafeteria) were at low risk of bias, and their results support the meta-analysis. The results of the other four studies which were conducted in a restaurant, cafeterias (2 studies) or a coffee shop, were not clearly reported and were at high risk of bias.Seventeen studies assessed the impact of nutritional labels on consumption in artificial settings or scenarios (henceforth referred to as laboratory studies or settings). Of these, eight (all RCTs) assessed the effect of labels on menus or placed on a range of food options. A meta-analysis of these studies did not conclusively demonstrate a reduction in energy consumed during a meal (MD -50 kcal, 95% CI -104.41, 3.88, N = 1705). We rated the quality of the evidence as low, so our confidence in the effect estimate is limited and may change with further studies.Six laboratory studies (four RCTs and two Q-RCTs) assessed the impact of labelling a single food or drink option (such as chocolate, pasta or soft drinks) on energy consumed during a snack or meal. A meta-analysis of these studies did not demonstrate a statistically significant difference in energy (kcal) consumed (SMD 0.05, 95% CI -0.17 to 0.27, N = 732). However, the confidence intervals were wide, suggesting uncertainty in the true effect size. We rated the quality of the evidence as low, so our confidence in the effect estimate is limited and may change with further studies.There was no evidence that nutritional labelling had the unintended harm of increasing energy purchased or consumed. Indirect evidence came from five laboratory studies that involved mislabelling single nutrient content (i.e. placing low energy or low fat labels on high-energy foods) during a snack or meal. A meta-analysis of these studies did not demonstrate a statistically significant increase in energy (kcal) consumed (SMD 0.19, 95% CI -0.14to 0.51, N = 718). The effect was small and the confidence intervals wide, suggesting uncertainty in the true effect size. We rated the quality of the evidence from these studies as very low, providing very little confidence in the effect estimate.
Authors' conclusions:
Findings from a small body of low-quality evidence suggest that nutritional labelling comprising energy information on menus may reduce energy purchased in restaurants. The evidence assessing the impact on consumption of energy information on menus or on a range of food options in laboratory settings suggests a similar effect to that observed for purchasing, although the evidence is less definite and also of low quality.Accordingly, and in the absence of observed harms, we tentatively suggest that nutritional labelling on menus in restaurants could be used as part of a wider set of measures to tackle obesity. Additional high-quality research in real-world settings is needed to enable more certain conclusions.Further high-quality research is also needed to address the dearth of evidence from grocery stores and vending machines and to assess potential moderators of the intervention effect, including socioeconomic status.
The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in calories, nutrient content, overall healthfulness, and use of sweetener ingredients between products with and without sugar claims. Consumers assume products with sugar claims are healthier and lower in calories. It is therefore important claims be found on comparatively healthier items. This study is a cross-sectional analysis of the University of Toronto's 2013 Food Label Database. Subcategories where at least 5% of products (and n ≥ 5) carried a sugar claim were included (n = 3048). Differences in median calorie content, nutrient content, and overall healthfulness, using the Food Standards Australia/New Zealand Nutrient Profiling Scoring criterion, between products with and without sugar claims, were determined. Proportion of products with and without claims that had excess free sugar levels (≥10% of calories from free sugar) and that contained sweeteners was also determined. Almost half (48%) of products with sugar claims contained excess free sugar, and a greater proportion contained sweeteners than products without such claims (30% vs 5%, χ(2) = 338.6, p < 0.0001). Overall, products with sugar claims were "healthier" and had lower median calorie, free sugar, total sugar, and sodium contents than products without claims. At the subcategory level, reductions in free sugar contents were not always met with similar reductions in calorie contents. This study highlights concerns with regards to the nutritional composition of products bearing sugar claims. Findings can support educational messaging to assist consumer interpretation of sugar claims and can inform changes in nutrition policies, for example, permitting sugar claims only on products with calorie reductions and without excess free sugar.
The “organic” claim explicitly informs consumers about the food production method. Yet, based on this claim, people often infer unrelated food attributes. The current research examined whether the perceived advantage of organic over conventional food generalizes across different organic food types. Compared to whole organic foods, processed organic foods are less available, familiar and prototypical of the organic food category. In two studies (combined N = 258) we investigated how both organic foods types were perceived in healthfulness, taste and caloric content when compared to their conventional alternatives. Participants evaluated images of both whole (e.g., lettuce) and processed organic food exemplars (e.g., pizza), and reported general evaluations of these food types. The association of these evaluations with individual difference variables – self-reported knowledge and consumption of organic food, and environmental concerns – was also examined.
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to assess the nutrition knowledge of the University of Sharjah community. Methods: A 50-item self-administered nutrition knowledge questionnaire validated for adults in UK was adapted to assess knowledge on current dietary recommendations, sources of nutrients, everyday food choices and diet-disease relationships. A cut-off score of 70% correct response was used to indicate 'adequate' knowledge level. All faculty, staff and students with UOS website accessibility were included. Results: The online questionnaire was filled by 265 respondents. The majority were 18-24-year-old students. Most respondents were aware of dietary recommendations but knowledge level was inadequate in terms of starchy foods (47.1%) to be eaten in lesser amounts; consumption of saturated fats (59.5%) to be reduced; and consumption of low fat dairy products (64.8%). Knowledge of common food sources of nutrients was adequate. Knowledge on specific sources of low salt or low fibre foods, cholesterol, healthy and not healthy alternatives to red meat was inadequate. Similarly, application of dietary recommendations in choosing everyday foods depicted inadequate knowledge. Knowledge of diet-disease relationships was also low. Females were significantly better-informed than males, with higher knowledge scores in each section of the questionnaire. Conclusion: A university community constitutes the informed section of a society. However, inadequate nutrition knowledge in this population reinforces the need for broad spectrum interventions to raise awareness on applying dietary recommendations and diet-disease relationships so as to make an informed choice in selecting everyday foods.
In this era of increasing obesity and increasing threats of legislation and regulation of food marketing practices, regulatory agencies have pointedly asked how "low-fat" nutrition claims may influence food consumption. The authors develop and test a framework that contends that low-fat nutrition labels increase food intake by (1) increasing perceptions of the appropriate serving size and (2) decreasing consumption guilt. Three studies show that low-fat labels lead all consumers--particularly those who are overweight--to overeat snack foods. Furthermore, salient objective serving-size information (e.g., "Contains 2 Servings") reduces overeating among guilt-prone, normal-weight consumers but not among overweight consumers. With consumer welfare and corporate profitability in mind, the authors suggest win-win packaging and labeling insights for public policy officials and food marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Whereas everyone recognizes that increasing obesity rates worldwide are driven by a complex set of interrelated factors, the marketing actions of the food industry are often singled out as one of the main culprits. But how exactly is food marketing making us fat? To answer this question, we review evidence provided by studies in marketing, nutrition, psychology, economics, food science, and related disciplines that have examined the links between food marketing and energy intake but have remained largely disconnected. Starting with the most obtrusive and most studied marketing actions, we explain the multiple ways in which food prices (including temporary price promotions) and marketing communication (including branding and nutrition and health claims) influence consumption volume. We then study the effects of less conspicuous marketing actions which can have powerful effects on eating behavior without being noticed by consumers. We examine the effects on consumption of changes in the food’s quality (including its composition, nutritional and sensory properties) and quantity (including the range, size and shape of the packages and portions in which it is available). Finally, we review the effects of the eating environment, including the availability, salience and convenience of food, the type, size and shape of serving containers, and the atmospherics of the purchase and consumption environment. We conclude with research and policy implications.
Why is America a land of low-calorie food claims yet high-calorie food intake? Four studies show that people are more likely to underestimate the caloric content of main dishes and to choose higher-calorie side dishes, drinks, or desserts when fast-food restaurants claim to be healthy ( e. g., Subway) compared to when they do not ( e. g., McDonald's). We also find that the effect of these health halos can be eliminated by simply asking people to consider whether the opposite of such health claims may be true. These studies help explain why the success of fast-food restaurants serving lower-calorie foods has not led to the expected reduction in total calorie intake and in obesity rates. They also suggest innovative strategies for consumers, marketers, and policy makers searching for ways to fight obesity.
To assess the impact of fast food restaurants adding calorie labelling to menu items on the energy content of individual purchases.
Cross sectional surveys in spring 2007 and spring 2009 (one year before and nine months after full implementation of regulation requiring chain restaurants' menus to contain details of the energy content of all menu items). Setting 168 randomly selected locations of the top 11 fast food chains in New York City during lunchtime hours.
7309 adult customers interviewed in 2007 and 8489 in 2009.
Energy content of individual purchases, based on customers' register receipts and on calorie information provided for all items in menus.
For the full sample, mean calories purchased did not change from before to after regulation (828 v 846 kcal, P = 0.22), though a modest decrease was shown in a regression model adjusted for restaurant chain, poverty level for the store location, sex of customers, type of purchase, and inflation adjusted cost (847 v 827 kcal, P = 0.01). Three major chains, which accounted for 42% of customers surveyed, showed significant reductions in mean energy per purchase (McDonald's 829 v 785 kcal, P = 0.02; Au Bon Pain 555 v 475 kcal, P<0.001; KFC 927 v 868 kcal, P<0.01), while mean energy content increased for one chain (Subway 749 v 882 kcal, P<0.001). In the 2009 survey, 15% (1288/8489) of customers reported using the calorie information, and these customers purchased 106 fewer kilocalories than customers who did not see or use the calorie information (757 v 863 kcal, P<0.001).
Although no overall decline in calories purchased was observed for the full sample, several major chains saw significant reductions. After regulation, one in six lunchtime customers used the calorie information provided, and these customers made lower calorie choices.
The prevalence of obesity increased in the United States between 1976-1980 and 1988-1994 and again between 1988-1994 and 1999-2000.
To examine trends in obesity from 1999 through 2008 and the current prevalence of obesity and overweight for 2007-2008.
Analysis of height and weight measurements from 5555 adult men and women aged 20 years or older obtained in 2007-2008 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a nationally representative sample of the US population. Data from the NHANES obtained in 2007-2008 were compared with results obtained from 1999 through 2006.
Estimates of the prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults. Overweight was defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 25.0 to 29.9. Obesity was defined as a BMI of 30.0 or higher.
In 2007-2008, the age-adjusted prevalence of obesity was 33.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 31.6%-36.0%) overall, 32.2% (95% CI, 29.5%-35.0%) among men, and 35.5% (95% CI, 33.2%-37.7%) among women. The corresponding prevalence estimates for overweight and obesity combined (BMI > or = 25) were 68.0% (95% CI, 66.3%-69.8%), 72.3% (95% CI, 70.4%-74.1%), and 64.1% (95% CI, 61.3%-66.9%). Obesity prevalence varied by age group and by racial and ethnic group for both men and women. Over the 10-year period, obesity showed no significant trend among women (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] for 2007-2008 vs 1999-2000, 1.12 [95% CI, 0.89-1.32]). For men, there was a significant linear trend (AOR for 2007-2008 vs 1999-2000, 1.32 [95% CI, 1.12-1.58]); however, the 3 most recent data points did not differ significantly from each other.
In 2007-2008, the prevalence of obesity was 32.2% among adult men and 35.5% among adult women. The increases in the prevalence of obesity previously observed do not appear to be continuing at the same rate over the past 10 years, particularly for women and possibly for men.
Although point-of-purchase calorie labeling at restaurants has been proposed as a strategy for improving consumer food choices, a limited number of studies have evaluated this approach. Likewise, little research has been conducted to evaluate the influence of value size pricing on restaurant meal choices.
To examine the effect of point-of-purchase calorie information and value size pricing on fast food meal choices a randomized 2 x 2 factorial experiment was conducted in which participants ordered a fast food meal from one of four menus that varied with respect to whether calorie information was provided and whether value size pricing was used. Study participants included 594 adolescents and adults who regularly ate at fast food restaurants. Study staff recorded the foods ordered and consumed by each participant. Participants also completed surveys to assess attitudes, beliefs and practices related to fast food and nutrition.
No significant differences in the energy composition of meals ordered or eaten were found between menu conditions. The average energy content of meals ordered by those randomized to a menu that included calorie information and did not include value size pricing was 842 kcals compared with 827 kcals for those who ordered their meal from a menu that did not include calorie information but had value size pricing (control menu). Results were similar in most analyses conducted stratified by factors such as age, race and education level.
Additional research is needed to better evaluate the effects of calorie labeling and value size pricing on fast food meal choices. Studies in which participants are repeatedly exposed to these factors are needed since long term exposure may be required for behavior change.
This research examines the moderating role of attempted dietary restraint on the amount of food consumed from small food in small packages versus large food in large packages. Four experiments demonstrate that restrained eaters consume more calories from small food in small packages, while unrestrained eaters consume more calories from large food in a large package. For restrained eaters, overconsumption of the small food in small packages results from a lapse in self-control caused by the stress of perceiving conflicting food information: the small food in small packages is perceived as both diet food and high in calories. (c) 2008 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
Eating away from home has increased in prevalence among US adults and now comprises about 50% of food expenditures. Calorie labeling on chain restaurant menus is one specific policy that has been proposed to help consumers make better food choices at restaurants. The present review evaluates the available empirical literature on the effects of calorie information on food choices in restaurant and cafeteria settings.
Computer-assisted searches were conducted using the PUBMED database and the Google Scholar world wide web search engine to identify studies published in peer-review journals that evaluated calorie labeling of cafeteria or restaurant menu items. Studies that evaluated labeling only some menu items (e.g. low calorie foods only) were excluded from the review since the influence of selective labeling may be different from that which may be expected from comprehensive labeling.
Six studies were identified that met the selection criteria for this review. Results from five of these studies provide some evidence consistent with the hypothesis that calorie information may influence food choices in a cafeteria or restaurant setting. However, results from most of these studies suggest the effect may be weak or inconsistent. One study found no evidence of an effect of calorie labeling on food choices. Each of the studies had at least one major methodological shortcoming, pointing toward the need for better designed studies to more rigorously evaluate the influence of point-of-purchase calorie labeling on food choices.
More research is needed that meets minimum standards of methodological quality. Studies need to include behavioral outcomes such as food purchase and eating behaviors. Also, studies need to be implemented in realistic settings such as restaurants and cafeterias.
Synopsis
Psychometric and clinical correlates of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) are described for a large sample of female anorexia nervosa ( N = 160) and female comparison ( N = 140) subjects. An abbreviated 26-item version of the EAT (EAT-26) is proposed, based on a factor analysis of the original scale (EAT-40). The EAT-26 is highly correlated with the EAT-40 ( r = 0·98) and three factors form subscales which are meaningfully related to bulimia, weight, body-image variables and psychological symptoms. Whereas there are no differces between bulimic and restricter anorexia nervosa patients on the total EAT-26 and EAT-40 scores, these groups do indicate significant differences on EAT-26 fractors. Norms for the anorexia nervosa and female comparison subjects are presented for the EAT-26, EAT-40 and the EAT-26 factors. It is concluded that the EAT-26 is a reliable, valid and economical instrument which may be useful as an objective measure of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa.
The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT; Garner & Garfinkel, 1979) is one of the most widely used self-report eating disorder instruments. Originally developed to diagnose anorexia nervosa, it is often used in nonclinical samples where it has a high false-positive rate, which is likely due to changes in diagnostic criteria. Because the EAT has not been validated with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria, we examined its criterion validity for discriminating between nonclinical women with and without an undifferentiated DSM-IV eating disorder diagnosis. We also examined differences in mean EAT scores among eating-disordered, symptomatic, and asymptomatic participants. Results show that the EAT has an accuracy rate of at least 90% when used to differentially diagnose those with and without eating disorders and that mean EAT scores differed among eating-disordered, symptomatic, and asymptomatic participants.
To effectively promote and support healthy eating among Canadians, there needs to be a better understanding of the factors that influence eating behaviours. Perceptions of healthy eating can be considered as one of the many factors influencing people's eating habits. For this review, "perceptions of healthy eating" are defined as the public's and health professionals' meanings, understandings, views, attitudes and beliefs about healthy eating, eating for health, and healthy foods. This article's aim is to review and summarize the literature on the perceptions of healthy eating and to identify the current state of knowledge and key knowledge gaps. Databases, the worldwide web, selected journals and reference lists were searched for relevant papers from the last 20 years. Reviewed articles suggest relative homogeneity in the perceptions of healthy eating despite the studies being conducted in different countries and involving different age groups, sexes and socio-economic status. Perceptions of healthy eating were generally based on food choice. Fruits and vegetables were consistently recognized as part of healthy eating. Characteristics of food such as naturalness, and fat, sugar and salt contents were also important in people's perceptions of healthy eating. Concepts related to healthy eating, such as balance, variety and moderation, were often mentioned, but they were found to be polysemous, conveying multiple meanings. The main gap identified in this review concerns the lack of knowledge available on perceptions of healthy eating. More data are needed on the perceptions of healthy eating in general, on the influence on perceptions of messages from diverse sources such as food companies, and, most important, on the role of perceptions of healthy eating as a determinant of food choice.
We surveyed 7318 customers from 275 randomly selected restaurants of 11 fast food chains. Participants purchased a mean of 827 calories, with 34% purchasing 1000 calories or more. Unlike other chains, Subway posted calorie information at point of purchase and its patrons more often reported seeing calorie information than patrons of other chains (32% vs 4%; P<.001); Subway patrons who saw calorie information purchased 52 fewer calories than did other Subway patrons (P<.01). Fast-food chains should display calorie information prominently at point of purchase, where it can be seen and used to inform purchases.
The development of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) with scales for restrained, emotional, and external eating is described. Factor analyses have shown that all items on restrained and external eating each have high loadings on one factor, but items on emotional eating have two dimensions, one dealing with eating in response to diffuse emotions, and the other with eating in response to clearly labelled emotions. The pattern of corrected item-total correlation coefficients and of the factors was very similar for various subsamples, which indicates a high degree of stability of dimensions on the eating behavior scales. The norms and Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scales and also the Pearson's correlation coefficients to assess interrelationships between scales indicate that the scales have a high internal consistency and factorial validity. However, their external validity has yet to be investigated.
The development of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) with scales for restrained, emotional, and external eating is described. Factor analyses have shown that all items on restrained and external eating each have high loadings on one factor, but items on emotional eating have two dimensions, one dealing with eating in response to diffuse emotions, and the other with eating in response to clearly labelled emotions. The pattern of corrected item-total correlation coefficients and of the factors was very similar for various subsamples, which indicates a high degree of stability of dimensions on the eating behavior scales. The norms and Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scales and also the Pearson's correlation coefficients to assess interrelationships between scales indicate that the scales have a high internal consistency and factorial validity. However, their external validity has yet to be investigated.
Consumers' attempts to control their unwanted consumption impulses influence many everyday purchases with broad implications for marketers' pricing policies. Addressing theoreticians and practitioners alike, this paper uses multiple empirical methods to show that consumers voluntarily and strategically ration their purchase quantities of goods that are likely to be consumed on impulse and that therefore may pose self-control problems. For example, many regular smokers buy their cigarettes by the pack, although they could easily afford to buy 10-pack cartons. These smokers knowingly forgo sizable per-unit savings from quantity discounts, which they could realize if they bought cartons; by rationing their purchase quantities, they also self-impose additional transactions costs on marginal consumption, which makes excessive smoking overly difficult and costly.
Such strategic self-imposition of constraints is intuitively appealing yet theoretically problematic. The marketing literature lacks operationalizations and empirical tests of such consumption self-control strategies and of their managerial implications. This paper provides experimental evidence of the operation of consumer self-control and empirically illustrates its direct implications for the pricing of consumer goods. Moreover, the paper develops a conceptual framework for the design of empirical tests of such self-imposed constraints on consumption in consumer goods markets. Within matched pairs of products, we distinguish relative “virtue” and “vice” goods whose preference ordering changes with whether consumers evaluate immediate or delayed consumption consequences. For example, ignoring long-term health effects, many smokers prefer regular (relative vice) to light (relative virtue) cigarettes, because they prefer the taste of the former. However, ignoring these short-term taste differences, the same smokers prefer light to regular cigarettes when they consider the long-term health effects of smoking. These preference orders can lead to dynamically inconsistent consumption choices by consumers whose tradeoffs between the immediate and delayed consequences of consumption depend on the time lag between purchase and consumption. This creates a potential self-control problem, because these consumers will be tempted to overconsume the vices they have in stock at home. Purchase quantity rationing helps them solve the self-control problem by limiting their stock and hence their consumption opportunities. Such rationing implies that, per purchase occasion, vice consumers will be less likely than virtue consumers to buy larger quantities in response to unit price reductions such as quantity discounts.
We first test this prediction in two laboratory experiments. We then examine the external validity of the results at the retail level with a field survey of quantity discounts and with a scanner data analysis of chain-wide store-level demand across a variety of different pairs of matched vice (regular) and virtue (reduced fat, calorie, or caffeine, etc.) product categories. The analyses of these experimental, field, and scanner data provide strong convergent evidence of a characteristic crossover in demand schedules for relative vices and virtues for categories as diverse as, among others, potato chips, chocolate chip cookies, cream cheese, beer, soft drinks, ice cream and frozen yogurt, chewing gum, coffee, and beef and turkey bologna. Vice consumers' demand increases less in response to price reductions than virtue consumers' demand, although their preferences are not generally weaker for vices than for virtues. Constraints on vice purchases are self-imposed and strategic rather than driven by simple preferences. We suggest that rationing their vice inventories at the point of purchase allows consumers to limit subsequent consumption. As a result of purchase quantity rationing, however, vice buyers forgo savings from price reductions through quantity discounts, effectively paying price premiums for the opportunity to engage in self-control. Thus, purchase quantity rationing vice consumers are relatively price insensitive.
From a managerial and public policy perspective, our findings should offer marketing practitioners in many consumer goods industries new opportunities to increase profits through segmentation and price discrimination based on consumer self-control. They can charge premium prices for small sizes of vices, relative to the corresponding quantity discounts for virtues. Virtue consumers, on the other hand, will buy larger amounts even when quantity discounts are relatively shallow. A key conceptual contribution of this paper lies in showing how marketing researchers can investigate a whole class of strategic self-constraining consumer behaviors empirically. Moreover, this research is the first to extend previous, theoretical work on impulse control by empirically demonstrating its broader implications for marketing decision making.
Our perceptions of the healthiness of foods are thought to influence what we decide to eat. Reportedly, women (as compared to men) eat more nutritious foods and are more likely to consider health issues when deciding what to eat However, until now, few studies have investigated possible gender differences in perceptions of the healthiness of foods. In the present study, men and women answered questions pertaining to nutritional habits, then rated a variety of foods according to their healthfulness. Results indicated that women, compared to men, tended to emphasize fat content over nutrient levels when deciding what foods are healthy. If perceptions of food health influence consumption, it is likely that females, as compared to males, would be more likely to suffer from malnutrition.
The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the 26-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26; Garner, Olmsted, Bohr, & Garfinkel, 1982) using a sample of 207 female college athletes. Previous studies using nonathlete populations have supported a number of factor structures, but a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) produced poor fit and problematic parameter estimates in this sample. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported a five-factor model that consisted of Drive for Thinness, Food Preoccupation, Others' Perceptions, Purging Behavior, and Dieting Behavior factors. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for these subscale scores ranged between .70 and .88. Convergent validity evidence was established by correlating EAT-26 subscales with four external criteria including body mass index, the difference between self-reported ideal and actual weights, the Drive for Thinness subscale of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2; Garner, 1991), and the Body Dissatisfaction subscale of the EDI-2.
The main aim of this study was to investigate the effects of food-related beliefs about the healthiness of foods, restrained eating, and weight salience on actual food intake during an ad libitum snack. In a 2 (healthy vs. unhealthy) by 2 (restrained vs. unrestrained eaters) by 2 (weight salient vs. not salient) factorial design, 99 female undergraduate students were invited to taste and rate oatmeal-raisin cookies. Dietary restraint and weight salience did not influence snack intake, but participants ate about 35% more when the snack was regarded as healthy than when it was seen as unhealthy. Ratings of the snack food's “healthiness,” “capacity to affect weight” and “appropriateness in a healthy menu” also indicated that the “healthy” manipulation was effective. In addition, the “weight salience” manipulation appears to influence perceptions about food differently in restrained versus unrestrained eaters, in that restrained eaters rated the snack food more negatively than unrestrained eaters did when they received weight feedback before eating. Beliefs about the healthiness of foods may thus be of great relevance to both food intake and weight gain.
This paper evaluates a pilot program run by a company called OPOWER, previously known as Positive Energy, to mail home energy reports to residential utility consumers. The reports compare a household’s energy use to that of its neighbors and provide energy conservation tips. Using data from randomized natural field experiment at 80,000 treatment and control households in Minnesota, I estimate that the monthly program reduces energy consumption by 1.9 to 2.0 percent relative to baseline. In a treatment arm receiving reports each quarter, the effects decay in the months between letters and again increase upon receipt of the next letter. This suggests either that the energy conservation information is not useful across seasons or, perhaps more interestingly, that consumers’ motivation or attention is malleable and non-durable. I show that “profiling,” or using a statistical decision rule to target the program at households whose observable characteristics suggest larger treatment effects, could substantially improve cost effectiveness in future programs. The effects of this program provide additional evidence that non-price “nudges” can substantially affect consumer behavior.
We assessed the impact of restaurant menu calorie labels on food choices and intake.
Participants in a study dinner (n=303) were randomly assigned to either (1) a menu without calorie labels (no calorie labels), (2) a menu with calorie labels (calorie labels), or (3) a menu with calorie labels and a label stating the recommended daily caloric intake for an average adult (calorie labels plus information). Food choices and intake during and after the study dinner were measured.
Participants in both calorie label conditions ordered fewer calories than those in the no calorie labels condition. When calorie label conditions were combined, that group consumed 14% fewer calories than the no calorie labels group. Individuals in the calorie labels condition consumed more calories after the study dinner than those in both other conditions. When calories consumed during and after the study dinner were combined, participants in the calorie labels plus information group consumed an average of 250 fewer calories than those in the other groups.
Calorie labels on restaurant menus impacted food choices and intake; adding a recommended daily caloric requirement label increased this effect, suggesting menu label legislation should require such a label. Future research should evaluate menu labeling's impact on children's food choices and consumption.
The development of the Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (DEBQ) with scales for restrained, emotional, and external eating is described. Factor analyses have shown that all items on restrained and external eating each have high loadings on one factor, but items on emotional eating have two dimensions, one dealing with eating in reponse to diffuse emotions, and the other with eating in response to clearly labelled emotions. The pattern of corrected item-total correlation coefficients and of the factors was very similar for various subsamples, which indicates a high degree of stability of dimensions on the eating behavior scales. The norms and Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scales and also the Pearson's correlation coefficients to assess interrelationships between scales indicate that the scales have a high internal consistency and factorial validity. However, their external validity has yet to be investigated.
By the 1930s, observational studies had suggested a link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer and, by the 1950s, strong evidence for a causal role had emerged. However, comprehensive measures to reduce cigarette smoking in the United States were delayed until after the 1964 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health, in part due to the political influence of the tobacco industry.1In 1977, the US Senate Select Committee on Health and Human Needs held hearings to explore the relationship between diet and chronic disease.2 At that time, the adverse effects of saturated fat on blood cholesterol levels were well-documented, motivating the committee to recommend reducing this type of fat to 10% of calorie intake. The committee also recommended reducing total fat to 30% of calorie intake, despite concerns from scientists, such as the administrator of the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, that “only limited knowledge exists concerning proper diets for humans.”2 For the next 20 years, reduction of fat consumption became the primary dietary goal of the US government and virtually all nutrition-related professional health associations. As a result, fat consumption as a proportion of total energy decreased markedly from the 1970s to the 1990s.3 During this period, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes increased greatly. Indeed, some have argued that the focus on reducing all dietary fats has actually caused harm, by diverting attention away from more effective action and by encouraging substitution of processed carbohydrates for more healthful monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.3
Current research in human eating is assessed from the perspective of current research methods which stress laboratory research, the use of artificial foods rather than real meals, shorter term studies, animal models, and abnormal eating models and an emphasis on sensory and physiological factors rather than social, cultural and contextual factors. The proposal is made to refocus more human eating research on real people eating real foods in real eating situations.
This study tested the hypothesis that the perceived fat content of a preload (a required first course) influences subsequent food and energy intake.
Forty-eight healthy, nondieting women (24 restrained, 24 unrestrained) were given a fixed amount (350 g) of three different yogurts (low-fat, low-calorie; low-fat, high-calorie; high-fat, high-calorie), or no yogurt, followed by lunch (30 minutes after the yogurt preload was served) and dinner (4.5 hours later). Each subject was tested in all four conditions in a counterbalanced design. Half of the subjects received accurate information, in the form of a label, about the fat content of the yogurts, which did not necessarily correspond to energy content; the other half received no information.
Energy intake, the percentage of macronutrients in the meals, and subjective sensations of hunger and satiety were analyzed.
No effect of restraint was noted in the intake analyses. A significant information-by-preload interaction (P < .05) was found. Subjects who had information consumed more energy at lunch after eating a preload labeled low fat than after eating a preload with similar energy content but labeled high fat. The opposite response was seen in women who did not receive information. When energy consumed at dinner was included in the analyses, overall intake was still significantly greater in the women who received information and ate a low-fat preload. No differences were found in the percentage of macronutrients selected or in subjective sensations after consumption of any of the preloads.
Messages about the fat content of a food can influence energy intake in healthy women.
Two studies explored Americans' tendency to simplify nutrition information. Substantial minorities of separate samples of college students, physical plant workers, and a national sample considered a variety of substances, including some essential nutrients (salt and fat), to be harmful at trace levels. Almost half the respondents believed that high-calorie foods in small amounts contain more calories than low-calorie foods in much larger amounts. Many subjects classified foods according to a good/bad dichotomy, and almost all subjects confounded nutritional completeness with long-term healthfulness of foods. To account for these results, we suggest the following heuristics and biases: dose insensitivity, categorical perception, a "monotonic mind" belief (if something is harmful at high levels then it is harmful at low levels), and the magical principle of contagion.
Sensory responses to the taste, smell, and texture of foods help determine food preferences and eating habits. However, sensory responses alone do not predict food consumption. The view that a "sweet tooth" leads to obesity through excess sugar consumption is overly narrow. In reality, there are multiple links between taste perceptions, taste preferences, food preferences, and food choices and the amount of food consumed. Taste responses are influenced by a range of genetic, physiological, and metabolic variables. The impact of taste factors on food intake further depends on sex and age and is modulated by obesity, eating disorders, and other pathologies of eating behavior. Food preferences and food choices of populations are further linked to attitudinal, social, and--probably most important--economic variables such as income. Nutrition education and intervention strategies aimed at improving population diets ought to consider sensory pleasure response to foods, in addition to a wide range of demographic and sociocultural variables.
The current study had two goals: first, to examine the stereotypes people have of particular foods by having them rate foods' names and nutrient descriptions; second, to determine if men and women rated food names and descriptions differently, and to examine the characteristics used to gauge salubrity. Of 33 foods presented, 16 had names rated better than their descriptions (a positive stereotype). In 11 cases, foods' descriptions were rated more positively than their names (a negative stereotype). Therefore, people have expectations about food names that do not match descriptions of foods' nutritional contents. Also, names of particular types of foods (e.g. fruits) were often perceived to be healthier than their corresponding descriptions. Women rated certain low-fat food names as more healthy compared to men. In addition, women tended to have bigger discrepancies between food names and their corresponding descriptions than did men, indicating that women were more likely to have biases about food names that did not match their ratings of the same foods' descriptions. Regression analyses indicated that women used fat content when judging healthfulness of food names, while men used fat content and vitamins and minerals. Men and women used similar characteristics when judging healthfulness of food descriptions.