PACKAGING INFORMATION - Consumers don't trust food industry portion sizes

Consumers do not trust portion sizes given on food packages and buy extra to ensure they have enough to eat, finds IGD research has found; industry needs to communicate better the basis of portion sizes.

• Portion sizes for packaged foods are a focus area for the food industry as healthier eating and anti obesity strategies are looking to help people rebalance energy intake and expenditure. Some nutritional labelling schemes, such as guidance daily amounts (GDAs) are based on portion size.

The new report is based on consumer research undertaken in focus groups, and through a quantitative survey of 1,067 adults aged 15 and over in April 2009.

• It found that while consumers liked portion size information on packs, they use it as guidance in the loose sense and tend to purchase extra as they are unwilling to rely on the quantities suggested by manufacturers.
• 36% of respondents said they ignored the portion size information on the pack; 38% said they will eat what they want regardless of what it says on the label.
• Moreover, people tend to define portions on the sheer quantity of food. With the exception of people on diets to lose weight or for medical reasons, consumers did not see nutritional content as a factor in determining portion.

Rachel Hackett, author of the report and nutrition manager at IGD, told FoodNavigator.com that the findings highlight the need for food manufacturers and retailers to communicate how they have come up with their portion sizes. Earlier work by IGD’s industry nutrition strategy group, which is made up of 30 nutritionists who work for retailers, manufacturers and food organisations, found that portion advice drawn up by industry, governments and NGOs is generally based on science and expert bodies. “We have to find a way for manufacturers to communicate: ‘We haven’t decided based on some nonsense. It is a real, well judged recommendation’,” Hackett said.

• Some 48% of respondents indicated that experience indicates how much they eat, but the research did not identify what the precise influences are.

Identifying these would help industry target efforts to promote balanced diets and appropriate portion sizes, but Hackett said in depth research in this area would need to be academically-led.

Best practice

• The IGD group is currently drawing up a set of best practice guidelines on how to communicate portion size. These are due to be published in September.
• Research of consumer understanding of portions was seen as vital to developing these guidelines. The report Portion Size: Understanding the Consumer Perspective is already available online .
• Hackett said it is not seen as necessary to create an industry standard for portion size communication, in the same vein as a European wide nutritional labelling scheme that being worked out at the moment. “There was not a clear preference for the language used, however a key point is that language should be consistent on the pack,” she said. For instance, manufacturers should choose between the word ‘serving’ and the word ‘portion’.
• Another tip she share was to avoid words like ‘suggested serving’ and ‘typical serving’, as these make people think: 'Who for?'

The report’s basis is research conducted in the UK, but Hackett said that the group is working with multinational food manufacturers so it will be interesting to see whether they implement best practices elsewhere.

SPAIN - NUTRITIONAL PANEL: Consumers prepared to pay for nutritional panel: Study

Spanish consumers are more willing to pay a premium for food products that carry a nutritional panel on packaging than for those that just make a ‘light’ claim, according to researchers.

• New nutritional labelling regulation is currently making its way through the European law-making process which would make certain information mandatory on food and beverage panels, including levels of certain nutrients like fat, sugar, salt and calories.
• Moreover, the new nutrition and health claims regulation allows for specific claims to be made, it the product meets conditions. For example, a ‘light’ claim can be made if the product contains 30 per cent less of a nutrient, such as fat or calories.
• The ‘light’ claim the most widely used form of nutritional claim in Spain, but the team said that both nutritional panels and light claims are useful to manufacturers in differentiating their products.
• They set out to assess how consumers value the different approached on food packages while shopping. Although they looked just at the Spanish market, and full EU-wide assessments would be advisable, their findings “have important implications for the European food industry and policy makers”.

----- Method -----

• The researchers used a choice modelling approach in their study, since the shopping context means consumers naturally have to make trade-offs between the products available.
• The results, they say, “suggest that although consumers value both types of nutritional information, the nutritional facts panel label is valued more than a specific nutritional claim”.
• “Specifically, using a choice experimental approach, consumers’ willingness to pay a premium is about twice as much more for a box of breakfast cookies with a nutrition label than for a box of breakfast cookies with a ‘light’ nutritional claim,” they wrote in the journal Food Quality and Preference.
• However they also said that the presence of a well-known brand is valued more than health attributes when shopping – although health attributes are playing an increasing role.
• Information or labelling of some kind is important because the health attributes of a food cannot be directly observed when shopping.
• The researchers did not dismiss ‘light’ claims altogether, but concluded that “there is room for both types of nutritional labels given that they are shown as important determinants in consumers’ food choices”.
• The findings should be tested in other European countries and using other food products, they said.

Source : Food Quality and Preference 20 (2009) 463 – 471 DOI: 10.1016.j.foodqual.2009.03.010 Consumers’ valuation of nutritional information: A choice experiment study Authors: Gracia, A; Loureiro, ML; Nayga, RM.