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Investigating how the number of nutrition content claims on the front of packages influences consumers

Lan, Yiting State

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Human Ecology: Family Resource Management.
Facing hundreds of food choices and tons of information, time-constrained consumers always spend time and efforts to search information and seek the greatest-value option (McCall et al., 1970). Nearly 200 food decisions need to be made by each consumer per day (Wansink and Sobal, 2007), and it is hard for consumers to check all the information. When purchasing food, consumers may rely on some information resources that can be easily gathered such as health claims, front-of-package (FOP) labels, online reviews and so on to make quick decisions. There is evidence that nutrition content claims on front of packages can assist people understanding products nutrition information and choosing healthier food. Yet, it is unknown whether the information of claims affects consumers or the number of claims matters. As a result, this study was interested in investigating how the number of nutrition content claims on the front of packages influences consumers. Specifically, two primary objectives of this study are (1) to measure the effect of the number of nutrition content claims on consumers’ purchase valuations of food products, regardless of the claim, (2) to determine whether or not there is a threshold point at which the number of claims does not affect product valuations. An online questionnaire was designed to test the effect of the number of nutrition content claims on consumers’ purchase intentions toward food products, and their willingness to pay. In this survey, four food categories: yogurt, cereal, frozen lasagna and peanut butter were selected to test. The results indicate that for yogurt, the number of nutrition content claims influences consumers’ perception and purchase valuation of food products. For cereal and peanut butter, the number of claims only has a significant effect on the purchase valuation of products. And for frozen lasagna, no significant difference of perception or purchase valuation is found between food products with a different number of nutrition content claims. This study highlights the important effect of nutrition content claims on consumers and finds the number of claims influences consumers purchase valuation of products for some food categories. In terms of implications, I find for different food categories, the effect from the number of claims varies.
Andrew Hanks (Advisor)
Jay Kandampully (Committee Member)
Robert Scharff (Committee Member)
52 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lan, Y. S. (2017). Investigating how the number of nutrition content claims on the front of packages influences consumers [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492719332912159

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lan, Yiting. Investigating how the number of nutrition content claims on the front of packages influences consumers. 2017. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492719332912159.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lan, Yiting. "Investigating how the number of nutrition content claims on the front of packages influences consumers." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492719332912159

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)