Dataset Information

The effects of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels on volume shares of products: the case of the Dutch Choices.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

The study examines the impact of a front-of-pack label (Dutch Choices) on household purchase patterns.

Design

Change in households' volume share of products eligible for the label (treatment group) is estimated as a function of changes in the market share of products displaying the label (treatment), while controlling for other relevant factors.

Setting

Home-scan data for five food categories, subdivided into eighteen food groups, for households participating in a Dutch consumer panel. The data are from the period 2005 to 2009, which includes the date of the introduction of the Choices label.

Participants

Between 831 and 7216 households from all over the Netherlands.

Results

An increase in the market share of products displaying the label led to an increase in the volume share purchased of products eligible for the label for dairy products, yoghurts and for sauces. For some of the products, the partial effect is considerable (e.g. a 10 percentage point (pp) increase in the share of products displaying the label is associated with a 11·5 and 14·0 pp increase in the volume share of eligible products for chocolate milk and quark, respectively).

Conclusions

The results suggest a positive effect from the presence of the Choices label on the volume share of eligible products purchased. Provided that eligible products are healthier than non-eligible products, the Choices label is a good guide for consumers in order to help them make healthier food choices. The positive effect is found mainly in food groups with a mix of both healthy and unhealthy food products.

SUBMITTER: Smed S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10260460 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

The effects of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels on volume shares of products: the case of the Dutch Choices.

Smed Sinne S Edenbrandt Anna K AK Jansen Léon L

Public health nutrition 20190624 15

<h4>Objective</h4>The study examines the impact of a front-of-pack label (Dutch Choices) on household purchase patterns.<h4>Design</h4>Change in households' volume share of products eligible for the label (treatment group) is estimated as a function of changes in the market share of products displaying the label (treatment), while controlling for other relevant factors.<h4>Setting</h4>Home-scan data for five food categories, subdivided into eighteen food groups, for households participating in a ...[more]

PMID: 31232256

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Front of pack (FOP) nutrition labels are concise labels located on the front of food packages that provide truncated nutrition information. These labels are rapidly gaining prominence worldwide, presumably because they attract attention and their simplified formats enable rapid comparisons of nutritional value. METHODS:Eye tracking was conducted as US consumers interacted with actual packages with and without FOP labels to (1) assess if the presence of an FOP label increases attention to nutrition information when viewers are not specifically tasked with nutrition-related goals; and (2) study the effect of FOP presence on consumer use of more comprehensive, traditional nutrition information presented in the Nutritional Facts Panel (NFP), a mandatory label for most packaged foods in the US. RESULTS:Our results indicate that colored FOP labels enhanced the probability that any nutrition information was attended, and resulted in faster detection and longer viewing of nutrition information. However, for cereal packages, these benefits were at the expense of attention to the more comprehensive NFP. Our results are consistent with a potential short cut effect of FOP labels, such that if an FOP was present, participants spent less time attending the more comprehensive NFP. For crackers, FOP labels increased time spent attending to nutrition information, but we found no evidence that their presence reduced the time spent on the nutrition information in the NFP. CONCLUSIONS:The finding that FOP labels increased attention to overall nutrition information by people who did not have an explicit nutritional goal suggests that these labels may have an advantage in conveying nutrition information to a wide segment of the population. However, for some food types this benefit may come with a short-cut effect; that is, decreased attention to more comprehensive nutrition information. These results have implications for policy and warrant further research into the mechanisms by which FOP labels impact use of nutrition information by consumers for different foods.

Project description:To stem the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity, front-of-pack labels (FOPLs) have been developed since 1989. Whereas several countries have already adopted one voluntarily, the European Community wants to harmonize an FOPL system that will be mandatory for all member states. The purpose of this narrative review is to describe what could be achieved or not by FOPLs, and to discuss if there is enough evidence to establish whether such labels are effective in modifying purchasing behavior, in directing individual dietary patterns towards a healthy and sustainable diet, and in reformulating food products by the food industry. Non-directive FOPLs, which are still under study, appear to be informative and well-accepted by consumers even if they require a cognitive effort. Conversely, directive FOPLs are supported by several studies, but they are mostly conducted in simulated scenarios and/or performed as retrospective studies. Nevertheless, directive FOPLs are rated as an intuitive tool, and they have demonstrated a high capacity to help consumers rank food products as more or less healthy. In conclusion, directive and non-directive FOPLs convey different messages. No FOPL individually can be considered exhaustive in relation to all the objectives outlined in this narrative review, and therefore, the development of a model synthesizing both messages is advisable. Many questions remain open, such as the possibility of reformulating pre-packaged products, how to deal with traditional products, and the impact on the incidence of NCDs and obesity. In the light of the complexity of factors that condition consumption choices and health, none of the current FOPLs can be considered a health policy tool on its own. The possibility of development remains open, but as the state of the art, these tools do not seem to be able to achieve all the European Community goals together. We can speculate that they could meet these goals only if they are integrated into a multi-tiered, structured health policy intervention.

Project description:BackgroundFront-of-pack nutrition labels (FoPLs) aim at increasing transparency and consumers' awareness of the nutritional composition of pre-packed food products in order to improve the nutritional quality of their food choices. Nevertheless, the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score - the FoPL officially adopted in France and several other European countries - is subject to both technical and political controversy, particularly in Italy. In this study, we investigated how and by whom the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score, recognized by several institutional authorities, could be deconstructed within a specific system of norms, values and beliefs among Italian stakeholders.MethodsA netnography completed with qualitative interviews with eight Italian and French nutrition and public health experts were carried out to highlight the dimensions (pragmatic, normative and cognitive) in which the Nutri-Score's legitimacy is being challenged among the stakeholders involved in FoPLs' implementation in Italy. The degree of influence and the position of these stakeholders on the debate around the Nutri-Score were assessed through the Stakeholder Theory (SHT), using their respective level of power, legitimacy and urgency. Furthermore, we compared the Italian and the French contexts on the issue.ResultsThe direct implication of political parties and media outlets in framing the Italian debate around Nutri-Score as well as the high influence of corporate unions, led to a different political outcome than in France. Results also show that the deconstruction of the legitimacy of the Nutri-Score in Italy pertained mainly to its pragmatic dimension according to the Italian public health experts. Nevertheless, its two other dimensions (normative and cognitive) are also questioned by high-influence stakeholders.ConclusionDue to the limited mobilization of scientific expertise over the issue, the debate in Italy stayed centered around the "attack" of the Nutri-Score to the Italian way of life, mixing up concepts such as Made in Italy products and the Mediterranean diet.

Dataset Information

The effects of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels on volume shares of products: the case of the Dutch Choices.

Objective

Design

Setting

Participants

Results

Conclusions

Publications

The effects of voluntary front-of-pack nutrition labels on volume shares of products: the case of the Dutch Choices.

Similar Datasets

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