Leandro Machín

Consumer Perception of the Healthfulness of Ultra-processed Products Featuring Different Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labeling Schemes

Objective: To examine the influence of front‐of‐pack nutrition information on the perception of healthfulness of ultra‐processed products across 2 income levels. Design: A between‐participants design was used to compare healthfulness perception of ultra‐processed products featuring different front‐of‐pack nutrition information schemes (guideline daily amount system, traffic light system, and monochromatic traffic light system). Participants: A total of 300 people (aged 18–70 years, 75% female) from Montevideo, Uruguay, participated in the study; half were middle‐ or high‐income people and the other half were low‐income people. Main Outcome Measures: Participants were shown the labels of each product and asked to rate their perceived healthfulness and the frequency with which each product should be consumed. Analysis: Results were analyzed using analysis of variance for statistical significance (P < .05). Results: Low‐income participants perceived ultra‐processed products to be significantly (P < .05) more healthful than did middle‐ and high‐income participants. The lowest perceived healthfulness scores for low‐income participants were obtained for products featuring the colored and monochromatic traffic light system whereas no significant differences (P > .05) among schemes were found for middle‐ and high‐income participants. Conclusions and Implications: Nutrition education programs aimed at increasing low‐income peoples knowledge of the nutritional composition of these products and their potential negative effects on health seem to be necessary. Although the inclusion of semidirective front‐of‐pack nutrition information decreased the perceived healthfulness of low‐income people, it seemed unlikely to influence how they perceive these products.

Influence of Label Design on Children's Perception of 2 Snack Foods

Objective: To evaluate the influence of label design on childrens perception of 2 popular snack foods across 3 income levels. Design: Labels of 2 snack products (yogurt and sponge cake) were designed using a fractional factorial design with 3 2‐level variables: cartoon character, nutrition claims, and front‐of‐package nutritional information. Participants: A total of 221 children (aged 9–13 years) from Montevideo, Uruguay, with different income levels, participated in the study. Main Outcome Measures: Childrens attitude toward and liking of 2 food products. Results: Low‐income children showed a more positive attitude toward the products than did middle‐ and high‐income children. The inclusion of a cartoon character in sponge cake labels significantly affected hedonic expectations regardless of income. Middle‐ and high‐income children tended to use the term funny more frequently and the term boring less frequently to describe labels that included the cartoon character, compared with those that did not. Conclusions and Implications: Results showed that the inclusion of cartoon characters on food labels is associated with fun. Low‐income children seem more susceptible to the marketing strategies of food companies than do middle‐ and high‐income children.

Can nutritional information modify purchase of ultra-processed products? Results from a simulated online shopping experiment

OBJECTIVE The aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of two front-of-pack nutrition information schemes (traffic-light system and Chilean warning system) on consumer purchase of ultra-processed foods in a simulated online grocery store. DESIGN Following a between-subjects design, participants completed a simulated weekly food purchase in an online grocery store under one of three experimental conditions: (i) a control condition with no nutrition information, (ii) a traffic-light system and (iii) the Chilean warning system. Information about energy (calories), sugar, saturated fats and salt content was included in the nutrition information schemes. SETTING Participants were recruited from a consumer database and a Facebook advertisement. SUBJECTS People from Montevideo (Uruguay), aged 18-77 years (n 437; 75 % female), participated in the study. All participants were in charge of food purchase in the household, at least occasionally. RESULTS No significant differences between experimental conditions were found in the mean share of ultra-processed foods purchased by participants, both in terms of number of products and expenditure, or in the mean energy, sugar, saturated fat and salt content of the purchased items. However, the Chilean warning system decreased intended purchase of sweets and desserts. CONCLUSIONS Results from this online simulation provided little evidence to suggest that the traffic-light system or the Chilean warning system in isolation could be effective in reducing purchase of ultra-processed foods or improving the nutritional composition of the purchased products.

Impact of plain packaging of cigarettes on the risk perception of Uruguayan smokers: an experimental study

Background Uruguay, a South American country of 3.4 million inhabitants that has already banned tobacco advertising, prohibited such terms as light, mild and low-tar and required graphic warnings covering 80% of cigarette packs, is considering the imposition of plain, standardised packaging. Methods We conducted an experimental choice-based conjoint analysis of the impact of alternative cigarette package designs on the risk perceptions of 180 adult current Uruguayan smokers. We compared plain packaging, with a standardised brand description and the dark brown background colour required on Australian cigarette packages, to two controls: the current package design with distinctive brand elements and colours; and a modified package design, with distinctive brand elements and the dark brown background colour. Graphic warnings were also varied. Results Plain packaging significantly reduced the probability of perceiving the stimulus cigarettes as less harmful in comparison to the current package design (OR 0.398, 95% CI 0.333 to 0.476, p<0.001) and the modified package design (OR 0.729, 95% CI 0.626 to 0.849, p<0.001). Conclusions Plain packaging enhanced the perceived risk of cigarette products even in a highly regulated setting such as Uruguay. Both the elimination of distinctive brand elements and the use of Australia’s dark brown background colour contributed to the observed effect.

Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing the Uruguayan Dietary Guidelines in Everyday Life: A Citizen Perspective:

An in-depth understanding of the citizen’s perception and behavior is needed for the development of targeted public policies and interventions that can successfully encourage people to shift their dietary patterns and contribute to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. The present work aimed to identify barriers and facilitators for the adoption of the new Uruguayan dietary guidelines from a citizen perspective. Twelve semistructured focus groups were conducted with a total of 91 people (81% female, age 18-64 years) from 3 Uruguayan cities. Findings identified several multifaceted barriers, including lack of value given to food, meals and cooking, taste preferences for unhealthy foods, the unsupportive social context in terms of household preferences, customs and social norms, and lack of control of the situation through insufficient food capabilities, time scarcity, and an adverse food market environment. The potential facilitators discussed in the focus groups were mainly related to policies and regulations to discourage consumption of unhealthful products and the provision of more education and information. In addition, respondents acknowledged the need for own actions in terms of seeking greater cooking skills and enjoyment, incorporating changes in their daily routines and promoting a more supportive social environment. Results suggest that supportive actions are needed to support citizen’s adoption of the new Uruguayan dietary guidelines.

Does a time constraint modify results from rating-based conjoint analysis? Case study with orange/pomegranate juice bottles

People do not usually process all the available information on packages for making their food choices and rely on heuristics for making their decisions, particularly when having limited time. However, in most consumer studies encourage participants to invest a lot of time for making their choices. Therefore, imposing a time-constraint in consumer studies may increase their ecological validity. In this context, the aim of the present work was to evaluate the influence of a time-constraint on consumer evaluation of pomegranate/orange juice bottles using rating-based conjoint task. A consumer study with 100 participants was carried out, in which they had to evaluate 16 pomegranate/orange fruit juice bottles, differing in bottle design, front-of-pack nutritional information, nutrition claim and processing claim, and to rate their intention to purchase. Half of the participants evaluated the bottle images without time constraint and the other half had a time-constraint of 3s for evaluating each image. Eye-movements were recorded during the evaluation. Results showed that time-constraint when evaluating intention to purchase did not largely modify the way in which consumers visually processed bottle images. Regardless of the experimental condition (with or without time constraint), they tended to evaluate the same product characteristics and to give them the same relative importance. However, a trend towards a more superficial evaluation of the bottles that skipped complex information was observed. Regarding the influence of product characteristics on consumer intention to purchase, bottle design was the variable with the largest relative importance in both conditions, overriding the influence of nutritional or processing characteristics, which stresses the importance of graphic design in shaping consumer perception.