Nutritional labelling information: Utilisation of new technologies

Abstract

The increase in food-related diseases in society has led to a variety of public policy and private sector initiatives, such as the use of nutritional labels. Although nutritional labels have been shown to be broadly effective in terms of informing food choice, their influence is moderated by a variety of factors, such as how information is conveyed and processed by consumers. Recent advances in technology might overcome these limitations. Using a choice experiment, this paper examines consumer preferences for alternative technological devices that may aid consumer processing of nutritional information on food packaging. The results show which attributes of the technology consumers prefer, and identifies three distinct segments of consumers (‘information hungry innovators’, ‘active label readers’, and ‘onlookers’), and differences between them in relation to their preferences, demographics, and psychographic characteristics. The identification of segments is a novel aspect of this research, and highlights the importance of finding more customised solutions to the communication of nutritional information – an issue to which technology can contribute.

Keywords:

• nutritional information
• technology
• segments
• labelling

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge support from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Kent for supporting this research.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Lowe

Ben Lowe is a reader in marketing at Kent Business School, University of Kent, and honorary lecturer at Imperial College London. He holds a PhD from Griffith University and his areas of research expertise are consumer behaviour and consumer acceptance of innovations. His work has been published in journals such as Psychology & Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Management, the Journal of Marketing Education, the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, the Journal of Product & Brand Management and others.

Diogo M. de Souza-Monteiro

Diogo M. de Souza-Monteiro is a lecturer in food marketing and economics at Kent Business School, University of Kent. He has a PhD in resource economics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst (USA). Currently, his research program focuses on the analysis of private and social marketing strategies to improve the supply of healthier food. He also analyses consumer demand for healthier and sustainable diets. He has done work on the strategic coordination of food quality information in food systems and robust surveillance of animal diseases. His work has been published journals such as Agribusiness: An International Journal, the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Food Policy, and the Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing. He is Managing Editor of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Review.

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Iain Fraser

Iain Fraser is a professor of agri-environmental economics, University of Kent and professor of economics research, La Trobe University. He received his PhD from the University of Manchester in 1992. He has held academic positions in the UK at the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Imperial College. He also lectured in Australia at La Trobe University. His research interests cover various aspects of agricultural, environmental and resource economics. He has conducted extensive research on agri-environmental policy, estimation and measurement of economic efficiency, food and health economics and non-market valuation. His research has been published in journals such as the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Productivity Analysis and the Journal of Applied Econometrics. He recently completed three years as an Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Currently he is the editor of the European Review of Agricultural Economics.

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