Factors Affecting Food Label Complexity: Does the New EU Regulation Satisfy Consumer Issues? An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACT

There is still a substantial information asymmetry between producers and consumers. Despite the recent EU regulation on labeling to enhance consumer food safety and the existence of a number of certifications on sustainable food products, there remain blind spots in the widely debated consumer information issue. Our study, conducted on primary data processed with a probit model, was aimed at identifying the factors that may affect consumer response in relation to difficulties in interpreting the labels of processed food products. Starting from theoretical models, several factors held responsible for defining the consumer’s knowledge were used as explanatory variables. Our results show that despite changes in the new legislation, there remains the problem of the consumer’s lack of knowledge concerning environmental labeling and product certification.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer research
• environmental certifications
• food choices
• label comprehension
• traffic light symbols

Notes

¹ The Water Footprint Network purports to measure human appropriation of fresh water resources and is aimed toward a variety of goals including identification of business, process, or product-level water consumption and promoting sustainable use of water resources (Hoekstra, Chapagain, Aldaya, & Mekonnen, 2011). When applied at a product level, the Water Footprint provides an inventory of water consumption throughout a product life cycle (the virtual water content). The term “carbon footprint” has evolved as an important expression of greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity for diverse activities and products. Standard methods for carbon footprinting have been prepared, and sector-specific standards are under development. These standards lay down procedures to carry out carbon footprinting through life-cycle assessment in conjunction with GHG accounting, classifying activities into three tiers based on the order of emissions. Since agriculture is the largest contributor to anthropogenic emissions of GHGs, the quantification of different agricultural practices is essential for identification of more sustainable practices (Pandey & Agrawal, 2014).