Tackling nutritional and health claims to disentangle their effects on consumer food choices and behaviour: A systematic review

Ballco, P. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Gracia Royo, A. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This systematic literature review collected and summarized research on consumer preferences and the purchase behaviour of food products with nutritional claims (NCs) and health claims (HCs), to reconcile, and expand upon, the findings of previous studies. First, considering that consumer behaviour is affected by a wide range of factors, to narrow the research we used a theoretical framework and divided the determinants of the effects of NCs and HCs on consumers’ preferences and purchasing behaviour into consumer characteristics, product characteristics, and consumers’ personal processes, using the quality perception process. Second, since most studies were conducted within the European Union (EU), we collected the scientific literature from 2006, when the law on NCs and HCs was harmonized in the EU, until September 2020. This same period was used to scan for other studies outside EU who used similar terminology on NCs and HCs. In total, 125 articles were found to be relevant for further analysis. The results showed that consumer characteristics such as familiarity, nutritional knowledge, motivation, and demographics affected choices. Extrinsic product characteristics, such as price, brand, colour, packaging shape and NCs and HCs, affected purchase decisions. Taste was the most important intrinsic characteristic, and consumers are not willing to sacrifice the pleasure of sensory function for health benefits. Perceived healthiness, understanding of the claims, liking and use were important factors that affected consumers’ personal processes in purchasing food with NCs and HCs. A challenge for future research is to consider exploiting new technologies and more realistic experimental methods to provide information that represents as close as possible consumers’ behaviour in real-life situations. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodqual.2022.104634

Año: 2022

Publicado en: Food Quality and Preference 101 (2022), 104634
ISSN: 0950-3293

Factor impacto JCR: 5.3 (2022)

Categ. JCR: FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY rank: 32 / 142 = 0.225 (2022) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 10.7 - Nursing (Q1) - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.161 - Nutrition and Dietetics (Q1) - Food Science (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Article (PostPrint)

Área (Departamento): Área Econom.Sociol.Polit.Agra. (Dpto. CC.Agrar.y Medio Natural)