Signals in the quest for the Holy Grail: consumer ranking of nutritional claims in cereal based products

Abstract

As a result of increased consumer consciousness, demand for healthier food products is raising. Consumers seek healthier versions of food products which they relate to reduced presence of unhealthy components or increased of healthy ones. Responding to this the food industry has enlarged the variety of products available and signalled the presence of substances using nutritional claims. However, an average consumer at the supermarket devotes just a few seconds selecting each product. In this context, consumers are only able or willing to process the information that attracts their attention or it is more important for them. This paper analyses how consumer rank different nutritional claims for two processed cereal products. Five claims were chosen to reflect the current market availability landscape and relate to both "healthy" (i.e. fibre) and "unhealthy" (i.e. fat) substances. We use a direct ranking preference method with data from a survey conducted to consumers in a Spanish region in 2017.Results show that the ranking of claims differs between the two products (pastries and biscuits) and across consumers. However, consumers prefer those signaling reduced presence of unhealthy nutrients above those highlighting the presence of healthy ones. Thus, policy to maximize impact of nutritional labelling should be product-specific.