Use of nutritional information: analysing clusters of consumers who intendto eat healthily

Abstract

Consumers intending to eat healthily should consult available information on the energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat content of foods. Some consumers,however, do this more than others do. The objective of this research was to identify distinct subgroups within the group of consumers who intend to eathealthily, segmented according to the timing and frequency of their use of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat. Furthermore, we analysedwhether consulting this information actually led to healthier food choices. Data on use of specific nutritional information in a computerised task in whichparticipants made multiple dichotomous food choices (e.g. high-fatv.low-fat cheese) were recorded from 240 participants using process tracing software.Participants could view nutritional information by hovering the mouse over specific areas of the screen. We found three clusters of participants based onuse of information about energy, salt, sugar and saturated fat: low, medium and high information users. There was a between-clusters difference in howoften the healthy option was chosen (88·95 % with high informationv.67·17 % with low information usage). Presence in the medium and high informationclusters was partially predicted by perceived self-efficacy in making healthy choices. It appears that some consumers are very confident of their ability tomake healthy choices, which is a reason for making less use of nutritional information prior to making food choices and may result in unhealthy choices.Ourfindings improve understanding of the conditions needed to develop effective interventions targeted at health-conscious consumers.