Guiding healthier choice: how consumers understand and use ... · Study 1 University of Surrey, UK: Charo Hodgkins, Bernadette Egan, Matthew Peacock Saarland University, Germany:

Guiding healthier choice: how consumers understand and use nutrition labelling and health claims on pack

Dr Naomi Klepacz Food, Consumer Behaviour & Health Research Centre

University of Surrey [email protected]

Food Matters Live 17-19 November 2015 ExCeL, London

INFORMAS taxonomy of health-related food labelling

Point of purchase food labelling components

Information

Nutrition labelling

Nutrient declaration

Supplementary nutrition

information

Nutrient specific systems

Summary indicator systems

Other information

Claims

Nutrition claims

Health related ingredient claims

Nutrient claims

Nutrient content claims

Nutrient comparative

claims

Health claims

General health claims

Nutrient and other function

claims

Reduction of disease risk

claims

Other claims

Source: Rayner et al (2013) Monitoring the health-related labelling of foods and non-alcoholic beverages in retail settings. Obesity Reviews 14 (Sup 1), 70-81 Food Matters Live 17-19 November 2015 ExCeL, London

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Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR)

What it contains

Nutrition claims

• Content claims

• Comparative claims

What it does

Health Claims

Function claims

Article 13.1 claims

13.1(a): the role of a nutrient or other substance in growth, development and the functions of the body

13.1(b): psychological and behavioural functions

13.1(c): slimming or weight-control or a reduction in the sense of hunger or an increase in the sense of satiety or to the reduction of the available energy from the diet

Based on generally accepted scientific

data

Article 13.5 claims Based on newly

developed scientific

data

Reduction of disease risk claims

Article 14.1(a) claims

Claims that state, suggest or imply that the consumption of a food category, a food or one of its constituents significantly reduces a risk factor in the development of a human disease.

Based on generally accepted

scientific data

Children’s health and development claims

Article 14.1(b) claims

European Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods and associated legislation


STUDY ONE

4

Understanding how consumers categorise health related claims


www.clymbol.eu

Understanding how consumers categories health related information


• Aim – how do consumers describe and categorise health claims in the context of nutrition claims?

• Participants - 20 in each of Germany, Slovenia, Spain, the Netherlands and UK

• 25 stimuli cards

• General function claims • Disease risk reduction/children’s development and health claims • Nutrition Claims • two claims were included which are classified by some experts as General

Health claims: ‘Contains wholegrain’ and ‘One of your 5 a day’

• Free and structured sorting – with ”think aloud”

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Understanding how consumers categories health related information


Pantothenic acid contribute to the reduction of tiredness and

fatigue.

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Categories of constructs used in free sorting

Name of person presenting Role of health-related symbols and claims in consumer behaviour p. 7

Sort strategy category/constructs Free Sort Total frequency 1 2 3 4 5

Information contained in claim Nutrient/health condition or outcome/function/purpose/ benefits (Includes reference to consequences/risk communication)

24 24 9 4 0 61

Types of statements Complexity/length/information levels/specific vs general information/expertise required vs user friendliness

22 14 6 3 3 48

Relevance: Personal/target groups /appeal

14 15 5 3 1 38

Mixed sort - no dominant construct

10 6 2 1 1 20

Understanding/confusion 7 4 5 0 0 16

Natural/artificial Scientific vs naturally occurring/healthful vs not healthful/ processed vs not processed

5 3 3 0 0 11

Importance 5 3 0 0 1 9 Credibility Believability/measurability/substantiation level/trust/agreement

3 3 1 1 1 9

Food Food group, food supplement

4 1 1 3 0 9

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What the consumers said….

They’re statements that are true but I worry about what they mean by barley beta-glucans and plant steroids and plant sterols. I have no idea what they are, they could be plant fibres, plant sterols, plant steroids,

I’m struggling to think what they might be.

I would look at that and think I don’t know what the damn Pantothenic acid is! So I wouldn’t know whether it’s going to do me any harm or

good or whatever.

What are cognitive functions? I mean, zinc is important for the body, I

know this. But I don’t know what to think about this term, this function.

Scientific gobbledygook! This is something that’s beyond understanding in terms of bamboozling us with science. I worry about words I don’t understand that I haven’t come across.

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Average frequency of placement in appropriate structured sort groups

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• Consumers may not consciously differentiate between a nutrition and health claims the way that regulatory experts do – dependent on previously formed associative networks regarding familiar nutrients and their relationship with health

• Free sorting - when categorising claims, consumers appear not to differentiate between Article 13a General function claims relating to growth development and functions of the body, and Article 14 Disease risk reduction claims

• Structured sorting - more likely to place the disease risk reduction claims under the appropriate expert taxonomy group than they were for the Article 13a General Function claims.

Understanding how consumers categorise health related claims


STUDY TWO

11

The role of causal models and beliefs in claims in interpreting

health claims


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The role of causal models and belief in claims in interpreting health claim

• Aim – to what extent do consumers interpret health claims using their subjective causal models about health?

• Participants - 501 (Germany (169), the Netherlands (80), Spain (90), Slovenia (80), or the UK (82)) recruited using a online provider – age and gender quotas

• Network analysis used to establish the subjective causal models that consumers hold connecting:

o nutrients identified in claims

o health outcomes stated in claims

o overall heart health


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Causal model about heart health

Omega-3 → cholesterol levels → heart health

Omega-3 → blood pressure → heart health

Beta glucans → cholesterol levels → heart health

Salt → blood pressure → heart health

Plant stanols → cholesterol levels → heart health

Saturated fat → blood pressure → heart health

Saturated fat → cholesterol levels → heart health

Saturated fat → body weight → heart health


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Inferences drawn from health claims

• Participants drew the intended inference about the benefits specified in each claim, but the strength of inference varied.

• Participants drew further inferences about overall health benefits of the nutrients that went beyond the information in the claim.

• Strength of inference was predicted independently by the strength of the relevant causal pathways within the causal model, and belief in the truth of the claim, but not familiarity with the claim.

Role of health-related symbols and claims in consumer behaviour

STUDY THREE

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When is an image a health claim?

Data from a novel memory paradigm


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When is an image a health claim?

Aims: Test the assumption that function images on product packaging can lead people to infer health claims. Compare the effect of function images on memory across different types of claims.

Participants: 372 volunteers recruited from 5 European countries

• UK, n = 81 • Germany, n = 79 • Netherlands, n = 71 • Slovenia, n = 71 • Spain, n = 70

185 females; 187 males, mean age = 45.07, SD = 14.53 range = 18-75

Method: Participants were shown 12 fictional product packages displaying one of 3 written claim types.

Health Claims [e.g., “Zinc contributes to normal cognitive function.”] Nutrition Claim [e.g., “Source of Zinc”.] Generic Claim [e.g., “Fantastic new taste.”]

and A functional health image (e.g., a heart) No image


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Examples of packaging

p. 17

Claim type generic generic nutrition nutrition health health

Image absent present absent present absent present

360 different packages

• 12 foods

o 6 health functions

o 2 food exemplars per function

• with and without image

• 3 types of claim (generic, nutrient, health)

• 5 languages

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Experimental procedure

Step 1: Encoding phase

Participants viewed 12 fictitious product packages, sequentially and in random order, for 20 seconds each.

Ste

p 2

: Fil

ler

Ta

sk

Step 3: Free Recall Task

Free recall of written claims

Step 4: Recognition Task

Selecting previously seen written claims from a list of possible written claims


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Presence of functional images resulted in …

FREE RECALL TASK - Write the sentence that has been removed from the packaging

• Significantly increased ‘correct’ recall of health claims as health claims

• Significantly increased ‘false’ recall of nutrition claims as health claims

• Did not significantly increase the ‘false’ recall of generic claims as health claims

RECOGNITION TASK – Select the statement from the list below that you remember seeing

• Significantly increased ‘correct’ recognition of health claims as health claims

• significantly increased ‘false’ recognition of both nutrition claims and generic claims


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Discussion and Conclusions

Role of health-related symbols and claims in consumer behaviour

Study Conclusions:

Participants falsely recalled and

recognised health claims that they had

not truly read.

Memory errors increased when

function images were present on

product packaging.

Data both fits with and expands on

current literature.

Application of Method:

This novel indirect method represents an innovative way to measure the potential leading or even misleading effects of specific images.

→ A useful tool for regulators and marketers.

Future Research :

Are images as enduring and effective as written health claims?

• For more familiar nutrients or functional ingredients where strong causal models

have been previously formed but the claims are no longer legally allowed by the

regulations → need to re-educate the consumer appropriately

• For new functional ingredients or less familiar nutrients where associative

networks have not been previously formed → opportunity to educate the

consumer appropriately

• Appears to be no authoritative resource that is independent from industry for

consumers to draw upon → need for regulators to consider providing

resource(s) to support consumers to establish appropriate networks and

beliefs

• Packaging imagery can lead people to infer health properties of products →

memory-based methods might help regulators quantify the extent to which

image and text combinations (mis)lead consumers

Recommendations


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Acknowledgements

FUNDER: EU 7th Framework Project CLYMBOL, grant agreement no.311963

COLLABORATORS:

Study 1 University of Surrey, UK: Charo Hodgkins, Bernadette Egan, Matthew Peacock

Saarland University, Germany: Katja Pfeifer, Stephanie Leick, Sabrina Rammo

Nutrition Institute, Slovenia: Krista Miklavec, Igor Pravst

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia: Jure Pohar

Wageningen University, The Netherlands: Evelien van de Veer, Marij Cornielje

Agrifood Research and Technology Centre of Aragon, Spain: Azucena Gracia

Study 2 University of Surrey, UK: Adrian Banks, Bernadette Egan, Charo Hodgkins, Matthew Peacock

Study 3 University of Surrey, UK: Naomi Klepacz, Bernadette Egan, Charo Hodgkins,

Aston University, UK: Rob Nash


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This research was a collaboration between…

University of Surrey, United Kingdom

Aarhus University, Denmark

Nutrition Institute, Slovenia

University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (Contract n° FP7-603036)


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Guiding healthier choice: how consumers understand and use ... · Study 1 University of Surrey, UK: Charo Hodgkins, Bernadette Egan, Matthew Peacock Saarland University, Germany: