Appetite
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Comparative Study
Making food labels social: The impact of colour of nutritional labels and injunctive norms on perceptions and choice of snack foods.
Recent studies report that using green labels to denote healthier foods, and red to denote less healthy foods increases consumption of green- and decreases consumption of red-labelled foods. Other symbols (e.g. emoticons conveying normative approval and disapproval) could also be used to signal the healthiness and/or acceptability of consuming such products. The present study tested the combined effects of using emoticons and colours on labels amongst a nationally representative sample of the UK population (n = 955). ⋯ Overall nutritional labels had limited effects on perceptions and no effects on choice of snack foods. Emoticon labels yielded stronger effects on perceptions of taste and healthiness of snacks than colour labels. Frowning emoticons may be more potent than smiling emoticons at influencing the perceived healthiness and tastiness of foods carrying health halos.
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Vegetable intake seems to play a protective role against major lifestyle diseases. Despite this, the Danish population usually eats far less than the recommended daily intake. The present study focused on the intake of 17 coarse vegetables and the potential barriers limiting their intake. ⋯ Preference for foods with a sweet, salty or bitter taste, in general, was also identified to be decisive for the reported vegetable intake, as these differed across the clusters. Each cluster had distinct socio-demographic, health and food lifestyle profiles. 'Low frequency' was characterized by uninvolved consumers with lack of interest in food, 'carrot eaters' vegetable intake was driven by health aspects, 'beetroot eaters' were characterized as traditional food consumers, and 'high frequency' were individuals with a strong food engagement and high vegetable liking. 'Low frequency' identified more barriers than other consumer clusters and specifically regarded low availability of pre-cut/prepared coarse vegetables on the market as a barrier. Across all clusters a low culinary knowledge was identified as the main barrier.