Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products
<b> </b>As a result of increased consumer awareness, demand for healthier food products is increasing day by day. Consumers seek healthier versions of food products which they relate to reduced presence of unhealthy components or increased presence of healthy ones. As a result, the food...
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doaj-9057e50c62b54bfe88f1c874b10ecb9e2020-11-25T02:33:14ZengMDPI AGNutrients2072-66432019-11-011112285810.3390/nu11122858nu11122858Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based ProductsAzucena Gracia0Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé1Unidad de Economía Agroalimentaria y de los Recursos Naturales, Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria de Aragón (CITA), 50059 Zaragoza, SpainEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), 41092 Seville, Spain<b> </b>As a result of increased consumer awareness, demand for healthier food products is increasing day by day. Consumers seek healthier versions of food products which they relate to reduced presence of unhealthy components or increased presence of healthy ones. As a result, the food industry has not only increased the variety of products available but also uses nutritional claims to signal the presence of more substances. As an average consumer at the supermarket devotes just a few seconds to selecting each product, they are only able or willing to process that information that immediately attracts their attention or that is felt to be more important to them. This paper analyses how consumers rank different nutritional claims for two processed cereal products. Five claims were chosen to reflect the current market landscape of availability, and that relates to both “healthy” (i.e., fiber) and “unhealthy” (i.e., fat) substances. We use a direct ranking preference method with data from a survey conducted with consumers in a Spanish region in 2017. Results show that the ranking of claims differs between the two products (biscuits and pastries) and across consumers. However, consumers prefer those that show reduced presence of unhealthy substances above those that highlight the presence of healthy ones. Therefore, policy to maximize the impact of nutritional labelling should be product-specific.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/12/2858consumer preferencesnutritional labelsbiscuitspastriesaragón |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Azucena Gracia Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé |
spellingShingle |
Azucena Gracia Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products Nutrients consumer preferences nutritional labels biscuits pastries aragón |
author_facet |
Azucena Gracia Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé |
author_sort |
Azucena Gracia |
title |
Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products |
title_short |
Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products |
title_full |
Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products |
title_fullStr |
Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products |
title_full_unstemmed |
Making Sense of Information Overload: Consumer Ranking of Nutritional Claims in Cereal Based Products |
title_sort |
making sense of information overload: consumer ranking of nutritional claims in cereal based products |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Nutrients |
issn |
2072-6643 |
publishDate |
2019-11-01 |
description |
<b> </b>As a result of increased consumer awareness, demand for healthier food products is increasing day by day. Consumers seek healthier versions of food products which they relate to reduced presence of unhealthy components or increased presence of healthy ones. As a result, the food industry has not only increased the variety of products available but also uses nutritional claims to signal the presence of more substances. As an average consumer at the supermarket devotes just a few seconds to selecting each product, they are only able or willing to process that information that immediately attracts their attention or that is felt to be more important to them. This paper analyses how consumers rank different nutritional claims for two processed cereal products. Five claims were chosen to reflect the current market landscape of availability, and that relates to both “healthy” (i.e., fiber) and “unhealthy” (i.e., fat) substances. We use a direct ranking preference method with data from a survey conducted with consumers in a Spanish region in 2017. Results show that the ranking of claims differs between the two products (biscuits and pastries) and across consumers. However, consumers prefer those that show reduced presence of unhealthy substances above those that highlight the presence of healthy ones. Therefore, policy to maximize the impact of nutritional labelling should be product-specific. |
topic |
consumer preferences nutritional labels biscuits pastries aragón |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/11/12/2858 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT azucenagracia makingsenseofinformationoverloadconsumerrankingofnutritionalclaimsincerealbasedproducts AT jesusbarreirohurle makingsenseofinformationoverloadconsumerrankingofnutritionalclaimsincerealbasedproducts |
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