The relative importance of primary food choice factors among different consumer groups: A latent profile analysis (2024)

Various front-of-pack food labels (FoPLs) are being introduced across the world, and discussion continues about the most effective label formats to improve consumers’ (i) understanding of the relative healthiness of alternative products and (ii) product choices. Of increasing interest is the relative ability of different types of labels to steer consumers away from unhealthy options (aversion) versus steer them towards healthier options (attraction). The aim of this study was to assess aversion and attraction outcomes for five FoPLs (Health Star Rating, Multiple Traffic Lights, Nutri-Score, Reference Intakes, and Warning Label) across 18 countries (n = 18393). Descriptive analyses assessed improvements in consumer understanding and choice outcomes for each label across three different types of food products. Binary logistic regressions were used to compare the relative ability of the labels to improve respondents’ understanding of product healthiness and their product choices, using the industry-developed Reference Intakes as the comparator. Aversion and attraction effects were assessed for each label/food type combination. Across the total sample, the Nutri-Score performed best in terms of both attraction and aversion results for understanding and simulated choice outcomes, followed by the Multiple Traffic Lights. The Reference Intakes exhibited the weakest performance overall, with the Warning Label and Health Star Rating falling in between. The most effective FoPLs featured a colour-coded spectrum design. The results indicate that front-of-pack labels that are effective in guiding consumers towards healthier food products can also be effective in steering them away from unhealthy options.

An increasing number of studies investigate the effect of front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels on consumer choice without considering differences in consumer preferences for product attributes. This study used a choice-based conjoint analysis to test consumers' preferences for four product attributes (5 levels of a FOP nutrition label, absence/presence of a nutrition claim, brand (unfamiliar, private label or premium) and 5 levels of price) when they coexist (n=1156). As the consumer preferences showed distinct patterns (multimodality), consumers were subsequently clustered based on how a FOP nutrition label (Nutri-Score) influenced their food choices. Three consumer segments were identified, each valuing the Nutri-Score label differently. The label effectively seems to nudge one segment toward healthier choices (n=456), while in contrast, another segment is unexpectedly steered toward unhealthier food choices by the label (n=343). The third segment is only consistently nudged by the FOP label's extremes (n=357). The segments also differ in their preferences for other product attributes (brand and price), health involvement, and self-reported understanding and use of the Nutri-Score, but not in the measured socio-demographic variables (age, sex, education, social class), dieting or smoking habits. In summary, consumers vary in their food label preferences, and studies that pool consumers may fail to capture these nuances, leading to biased results. This study shows that FOP labels do not steer all consumers toward healthier choices and may even have adverse effects for some. This suggests combining different policies and marketing strategies to reach all consumer segments.

Concerns over the impact of global meat production and consumption patterns are leading to increasing interest in alternative sources of protein. This study provides new insight into consumers’ attitudes towards different protein products and factors associated with the acceptance of lab-grown chicken and lab-grown beef. We measured and compared 1078 Australian consumers’ beliefs regarding conventionally raised meat (chicken and beef), plant-based meat alternatives and lab-grown meat products across six attributes: health, safety, affordability, eating enjoyment, animal welfare, and environmental friendliness. Beliefs regarding the health and affordability of conventionally raised chicken were statistically highest. For all attributes, beliefs relating to plant-based meat alternatives were more positive than those relating to lab-grown meat, and with respect to animal welfare and environmental friendliness, plant-based products were viewed most positively relative to all products. Despite average negative belief scores for all attributes, except for animal welfare, around one-quarter of consumers still indicated a willingness to consume lab-grown chicken and lab-grown beef. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to explain factors associated with consumers’ willingness to consume lab-grown meat products. Factors associated with willingness to consume the lab-grown meat products were positive beliefs regarding eating experience (enjoyment), safety, animal welfare, and healthiness; familiarity; higher consumption frequency of conventionally raised chicken meat; tertiary education; and younger age. Although lower environmental impact has been proposed as one of the main benefits of lab-grown meat, beliefs regarding environmental friendliness were not significant in either model.

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104302

Wine experts’ mental representations have often been studied by comparing experts and novices without differentiating between the types of experts. Yet, it seemed that experts developed skills through their training and practice, and thus may have different wine representations. The first objective of this study was to examine the effect of experts’ background and actual occupation on their wine representation. Beaujolais was used as a case study as this vineyard was in constant evolution with the emergence of new mentions such as Pierres Dorées. The second objective was to evaluate how new information was integrated in experts’ mental representation. Three panels were recruited: wine makers, wine sellers, and wine critics. To access their mental representations, a drawing elicitation method was combined with an interview. The results highlighted a common structure in the representations of experts based on two poles: the first pole was linked to the environment and the vineyard, and the second pole was linked to the intrinsic aspects of wines. This universal mental representation of wine would be based on the experts' long-term memory knowledge acquired during training. Some differences linked to the experts’ profession, experience and exposure were also observed. These differences could be explained in terms of perceptual learning. Through shared experiences and exposures, experts with similar occupations and backgrounds developed similar mental representations (e.g., wine makers or wine sellers). Conversely, despite a common occupation, experts with a different experience, practice and background developed idiosyncratic wine representations (e.g., wine critics).

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104317

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104318

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104322

The purpose of this study was to explore the patterns and stability of, as well as the predictors for, Chinese adults’ food preferences. With the panel data set derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), latent class analysis (LCA) and latent transition analysis (LTA) were employed to analyze the data of 8850 adults aged 18–40years (young), 41–60years (middle-aged) and 61years above (elderly) over a 4-year period (year 2011 as baseline and year 2015 as follow-up). Latent class analysis revealed three types of food preferences: preference for fruits and vegetables, preference for a varied diet and low food preference. Gender, dietary knowledge, residence, education, and BMI were revealed as significant predictors of the class memberships. From baseline to follow-up, the most stable status in young adult group was preference for fruits and vegetables as it had a high transition probability 0.764 of remaining in the same class. While low food preference and preference for a varied diet statuses were unstable, they had transition probabilities of 0.590 and 0.554, respectively, moving to the preference for fruits and vegetables in year 2015. For middle-aged and elderly groups, the most stable and unstable statuses were preference for fruits and vegetables and preference for a varied diet, respectively. The unstable classes all had over 50% probability of moving to the preference for fruits and vegetables after four years. Potential explanations and implications are also discussed.

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104333

A crucial challenge in global climate protection involves figuring out how to promote climate-friendly (CF) food consumption in high-income countries. Improving consumers’ ability to identify CF food is a promising way to reach this goal. Previous research has shown that providing action-knowledge is an intervention technique that can effectively improve the mentioned ability if relevant preconditions are considered. The present study (further) examined such preconditions and possible refinements of this intervention technique in a representative sample of German consumers (N=510). Participants were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups (EG1 received simple guidelines for CF food consumption; EG2 received refined guidelines for CF food consumption) or a control group (CG) without any intervention. Altogether, the present study clearly demonstrates that simple guideline-provision is a promising and easy-to-use tool for interventions aimed at improving consumers’ ability to identify CF food in daily life.

Food Quality and Preference, Volume 94, 2021, Article 104335

Increasing consumption of ultra-processed products from early age has raised growing concerns. In this context, the aims of the present work were: i) to explore the automatic mental associations raised by packages of ultra-processed products among parents of children under 12months of age, ii) to estimate the valence of the affective reactions elicited by ultra-processed products, and iii) to explore the influence of socio-demographic variables and feeding styles on the valence of parents' associations with ultra-processed products. A total of 419 parents of children under 12months of age were recruited at 20 health facilities that offer well-child services, selected using probability proportional to size sampling based on the number of births at each institution. Participants were presented with the labels of six ultra-processed products (corn snack, frankfurters, milk dessert, orange juice, wafer cookies, yogurt) and were asked to indicate the first words that came to their mind. The products raised mixed mental associations, which were mainly related to pleasure and health. Responses from the majority of participants (61–82%) evidenced negative associations with corn snacks, frankfurters and wafer cookies, whereas responses from 35 to 45% of the participants suggested a positive affective reaction towards orange juice, milk dessert and yogurt. Likelihood of having a positive affective reaction towards the evaluated ultra-processed products was higher for parents of 1 to 4months infants, as well as those from low educational level and low socio-economic status. In addition, beliefs about three feeding practices (restriction on diet quality, indulgence in screen use and pressure for finishing) significantly influenced the valence of the associations. Results from the present work suggest the need to implement regulatory measures to reduce positive associations with ultra-processed products among parents and contribute to reduce their consumption among infants.