Consumer valuation of European nutritional and health claims: Do taste and attention matter?. (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ballco, Petjon; Caputo, Vincenzina; de-Magistris, Tiziana
• Is Part Of: Food quality and preference. Volume 79(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: NC nutritional claims -- HC health claims -- DCE discrete choice experiment -- RECE real choice experiment -- ET eye tracking -- ANA attribute non-attendance -- EU European Union -- FOP front of pack -- AOI area of interest; Nutritional claim -- Health claim -- Eye tracking -- Discrete choice experiment -- Attribute non-attendance -- Consumer; Food preferences -- Periodicals; Food -- Quality -- Periodicals; Food industry and trade -- Quality control -- Periodicals; Préférences alimentaires -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Qualité -- Périodiques; Aliments -- Industrie et commerce -- Qualité -- Contrôle -- Périodiques; Food industry and trade -- Quality control; Food preferences; Food -- Quality; Periodicals; 664
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103793
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-3293

Abstract

Highlights: Consumer utility increases when both NCs and HCs are present on healthy food. Most preferred nutritional and health claims generate higher visual attention. Utility increases when nutritional claims appear with health claims instead of alone. Tasting healthy products produces negative utility for nutritional and health claims. Attribute non-attendance is lower after tasting food products. Abstract: Healthier eating and convenience are two important and often divergent aspects of contemporary diet patterns. With the intention of guiding consumers to make more informed food purchase decisions, policy makers, such as the European Union, emphasize the need to shift dietary patterns toward healthier food by introducing nutritional claims (NCs) and health claims (HCs). The purpose of this study is to (i) explore the impact of NCs and HCs on a healthy food product (yogurt), (ii) investigate consumer choices through a discrete choice experiment (DCE), (iii) examine the role of taste as a key food attribute influencing the purchase decision process, and (iv) explore the visual attention that consumers pay to NCs and HCs. The results from a generalized mixed logit model suggest that there is a relationship between the most highly valued NCs and HCs from the stated preferences and visual attention in terms of fixation count. This relationship affirms that the final product selection is based not only on the type of labeling on the package but also on the visual attention that consumers pay to it. Tasting a healthy food product resulted in negative utility, but greater visual attention attached to NCs and HCs and a lower percentage of attribute non-attendance (ANA).