The influence of label information on the snacks parents choose for their children: Individual differences in a choice based conjoint test

Parents' Perceptions of Claims on Packaged Commercial Toddler Foods: A Qualitative Study

Commercial toddler foods (CTFs) are widely used. Many are nutritionally poor despite displaying health, nutrition or marketing claims implying healthiness. This study aimed to: (i) explore how claims on CTFs influence parents' product perceptions and preferences, and gauge support for regulatory reform to ensure CTFs are marketed responsibly; (ii) identify other factors influencing parent's and toddlers' perceptions and preferences towards CTFs and toddler feeding in general. Six moderator-led online focus groups (N = 47) were conducted with parents of toddlers (aged 12 to < 36 months) in Victoria, Australia, using a discussion guide and mock CTFs to elicit discourse. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using exploratory content and thematic analysis. Parents found CTFs displaying claims more appealing, despite awareness and scepticism of claims. Parents expressed frustration over industry's use of claims and supported stronger regulation of claims. Some doubted the effectiveness of regulations, concerned that industry would find ways to circumvent rules. Parents perceive visual features (especially cartoon characters) on CTFs as highly influential for toddlers. Parents support honest labelling of CTFs, reflecting a product's actual ingredients and nutritional profile, especially signposting of sugar content. Parents evaluate CTFs based on perceived healthiness and convenience, often relying on social media and brand reputation for guidance on what to feed their toddlers. While parents are aware of, and sceptical about claims on CTFs, these claims still influence their perceptions. Findings highlight the need for stronger regulations to ensure that claims on CTFs do not create inaccurate perceptions of their healthiness.

How different goals drive attention: An interview study on how parental feeding goals influence the assessment of child-targeted food packaging cues

When making snack choices for children, parents are exposed to many child-targeted food packaging cues. This study aims to understand how different parental feeding goals (e.g. health versus fun versus taste) drive attention to these cues and how these cues help parents to make different snack choices. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 parents with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 12 years old. During the interviews, parents were primed with different feeding goals and asked to rank seven snack packages based on these goals. The interviews revealed three key takeaways regarding how parents consider snack packaging from a goal perspective. Firstly, packaging cues are interpreted (and thus used) differently when different feeding goals are salient. Secondly, cues are ignored when they do not offer valuable information for making goal-based assessments. Thirdly, when combining goals, parents either look for a combination of cues that fit their multiple goals, assess packaging based on a stepwise implementation of goals, or choose one dominant goal and rely on relevant packaging cues to rank snack packaging. This study widens the knowledge on how parental feeding goals can influence the food packaging choices parents make and the way in which they interpret packaging cues. The study can inspire policymakers by providing strategies to stimulate marketers to make the food environment healthier by steering consumers towards healthy food options and making these options more salient within environments where snacks are bought (e.g. supermarkets).

Characterising Parent-Appeal Marketing on Foods for Children: A Scoping Review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This scoping review examines current evidence on parent-appeal marketing on the front-of-pack of food products for children and the impacts on parents' perceptions, intentions, and behaviours.

RECENT FINDINGS

Thirteen relevant studies were identified. Marketing features on packages of foods for children that appealed to parents include health claims, nutrition claims, non-nutrient claims such as 'natural', healthy-looking product images, images of healthy ingredients, and celebrity endorsements. At the same time, parents were wary of front-of-pack marketing and find it confusing, deceptive, and misleading. Child-appeal marketing features such as cartoon characters and bright colours gave parents the perception that products were unhealthy. Overall, this scoping review offers important insights into the types of front-of-pack marketing that appeal to parents and offers an inventory of parent-appeal marketing features. These findings support the design and implementation of policies that aim to reduce commercial influences on children's diets through stronger regulation of marketing of foods for children.

Examining the effects of brand and licensed characters on parents' perceptions of Children's breakfast cereals

Brand and licensed characters frequently appear on children's breakfast cereal boxes and are known to affect children's product perceptions, selection, and consumption. However, less is known about their impact on parents' perceptions of foods they purchase for their child. The present study assessed the impact of brand and licensed characters featured on three children's breakfast cereal packages on parents' intentions and perceptions in an online experiment. Parents of children aged 2-12 years (n = 1013) were randomized into one of two conditions: breakfast cereals containing brand and licensed characters or breakfast cereals without any characters. Within each condition, participants viewed three breakfast cereal brands in random order per their assigned condition and reported their purchase intentions, healthfulness perceptions, and perceptions of appeal to children using 5-point Likert scales. No significant differences in purchase intentions (p = 0.91), perceived healthfulness (p = 0.52) or perceived child appeal (p = 0.59) were observed between the experimental and control groups. However, exploratory moderation analyses revealed that educational attainment moderated the impact of experimental condition on purchase intentions (p for interaction = 0.002) such that participants with a bachelor's degree in the character condition reported 0.36 points lower purchase intentions compared to the control with no difference between conditions for those with an associate's degree/trade school or high school degree or less. This study did not find an impact of brand and licensed characters on children's breakfast cereals, suggesting that their primary appeal is directly to children. Parents with higher educational attainment may be skeptical of characters on cereal brands. Additional research on the impact of brand and licensed characters on other products, in real-world settings, is needed.

Factors associated with food label use: focus on healthy aspects of orthorexia and orthorexia nervosa

PURPOSE

This study aimed to investigate the potential relationships between the use of different section of food label, and healthy and pathological aspects of orthorexia among adults.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted using an online survey (n = 1326). Inclusion criteria were being 19-64 years and graduated from at least primary school. Pregnant and lactating women were excluded. Data were collected using questionnaire including socio-demographic variables, lifestyle factors, body weight and height, frequency of reading different sections of food label ("always", "when buying a food for the first time", "when comparing similar packaged foods", "rarely", "never"), food label literacy, and Teruel Orthorexia Scale. Participants were categorized as nutrition facts panel-users, ingredients list-users or claim-users if they read at least one item from the relevant parts.

RESULTS

The proportions of nutrition facts, ingredients list, and claims sections users were 72.3%, 76.3%, and 79.9%, respectively. Both healthy and pathological aspects of orthorexia were associated with reading food labels. The healthy orthorexia had the strongest association with using the ingredients list (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.41-2.20), whereas the orthorexia nervosa showed the highest association with using nutrition facts panel (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.20-1.81). While women, physically active participants and those with higher food label literacy were more likely to use all sections of food labels; older age, having children, and chronic disease increased the likelihood of using claims and ingredients list (p < 0.05). Besides, following a diet was associated with higher use of nutrition facts and ingredients list (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The study demonstrates that food label users have higher orthorexia tendencies compared to non-users. Of the food label sections, healthy orthorexia showed the strongest association with use of the list of ingredients, while pathological orthorexia showed the strongest association with use of the nutrition facts panel.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level V, cross-sectional study.

Acceptance of New Formulations of Extruded Gluten Free Snacks Based on Pulse Flours by Spanish Millennial Consumers

Nowadays, the food industry has developed novel gluten free extruded snack type products made from pulses, which could be good candidates to promote pulse consumption as a sustainable food product, while also satisfying the consumer’s demand. Snack type products are a large part of the young people’s diets and impact health outcomes, so it is essential to offer them snacks with a better nutritional profile. In this study, 81 Spanish millennial consumers tasted “in situ” six different gluten free snacks based on pulse flour (lentil and chickpea) marketed in Spain. The aim of the present study was: (a) to evaluate the Spanish millennial consumers’ acceptance level of new pulse snack type products; (b) to evaluate the segmentation of the millennial consumers and understand the difference between the segments; (c) to evaluate the potential relationship between their nutrition food labelling and consumers’ acceptance. In general, the lentil formulations (with more protein, more fat and less fiber) obtained higher scores than those of the chickpea. In addition, a multidimensional statistical analysis, preference mapping, and a statistical analysis of agglomerative hierarchical clustering were performed. Consumers were grouped into three clusters based on their preferences, allowing a detailed study of consumer acceptance of the selected snacks. Cluster 1 like less the samples with less salt, and, on the contrary, these samples were preferred by Cluster 3. Cluster 2 is a group who like lentil snacks, regardless of their flavoring. It was observed that the consumer segments differ at least in their preference for saltiness. The findings of this study also showed that the nutritional composition of the analyzed snacks (as appears in nutrition labelling) was associated with Spanish millennial consumers’ acceptance and could provide valuable information to develop new snacks targeted at specific market niches, such as millennials. These data provide valuable insights when trying to anticipate Spanish millennial consumer acceptance of new gluten free pulse snacks.