TY - JOUR
T1 - Consumer confusion about wholegrain content and healthfulness in product labels
T2 - A discrete choice experiment and comprehension assessment
AU - Wilde, Parke
AU - Pomeranz, Jennifer L.
AU - Lizewski, Lauren J.
AU - Zhang, Fang Fang
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements: We thank Sarah Cronin for constructing the product images. She has approved this acknowledgment. Financial support: This study was supported by NIH/NIMHD 1R01MD011501. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Conflict of interest: None. Authorship: All authors contributed to research design and wrote the manuscript; F.F.Z. conceived the study and provided expertise in nutrition and cancer; P.W. led the data analysis, discrete choice study design and writing; L.J.L. led implementation of the survey; J.L.P. led the legal analysis. No financial disclosures were reported by the authors of this paper. Ethics of human subject participation: This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki, and all procedures involving study participants were approved by the Tufts University IRB. Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects/patients on the first page of the online survey.
Publisher Copyright:
©
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Objective: Using a legal standard for scrutinising the regulation of food label claims, this study assessed whether consumers are misled about wholegrain (WG) content and product healthfulness based on common product labels. Design: First, a discrete choice experiment used pairs of hypothetical products with different amounts of WG, sugar and salt to measure effects on assessment of healthfulness; and second, a WG content comprehension assessment used actual product labels to assess respondent understanding. Setting: Online national panel survey. Participants: For a representative sample of US adults (n 1030), survey responses were collected in 2018 and analysed in 2019. Results: First, 29-47 % of respondents incorrectly identified the healthier product from paired options, and respondents who self-identified as having difficulty in understanding labels were more likely to err. Second, for actual products composed primarily of refined grains, 43-51 % of respondents overstated the WG content, whereas for one product composed primarily of WG, 17 % of respondents understated the WG content. Conclusions: The frequency of consumer misunderstanding of grain product labels was high in both study components. Potential policies to address consumer confusion include requiring disclosure of WG content as a percentage of total grain content or requiring disclosure of the grams of WG v. refined grains per serving.
AB - Objective: Using a legal standard for scrutinising the regulation of food label claims, this study assessed whether consumers are misled about wholegrain (WG) content and product healthfulness based on common product labels. Design: First, a discrete choice experiment used pairs of hypothetical products with different amounts of WG, sugar and salt to measure effects on assessment of healthfulness; and second, a WG content comprehension assessment used actual product labels to assess respondent understanding. Setting: Online national panel survey. Participants: For a representative sample of US adults (n 1030), survey responses were collected in 2018 and analysed in 2019. Results: First, 29-47 % of respondents incorrectly identified the healthier product from paired options, and respondents who self-identified as having difficulty in understanding labels were more likely to err. Second, for actual products composed primarily of refined grains, 43-51 % of respondents overstated the WG content, whereas for one product composed primarily of WG, 17 % of respondents understated the WG content. Conclusions: The frequency of consumer misunderstanding of grain product labels was high in both study components. Potential policies to address consumer confusion include requiring disclosure of WG content as a percentage of total grain content or requiring disclosure of the grams of WG v. refined grains per serving.
KW - Consumer confusion
KW - Food labels
KW - Nutrition policy
KW - Whole grains
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85092235504&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85092235504&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1368980020001688
DO - 10.1017/S1368980020001688
M3 - Article
C2 - 32773004
AN - SCOPUS:85092235504
SN - 1368-9800
VL - 23
SP - 3324
EP - 3331
JO - Public Health Nutrition
JF - Public Health Nutrition
IS - 18
ER -