Consumer behavior and labeling: narrative review of the literature

Abstract

Introduction: Unhealthy diets and obesity are one of the main causes of death in the world, and one of the main factors that contribute to the increase in obesity is the food environment, with an increasing availability, accessibility, and commercialization of food rich in saturated fats, trans fats, sugars or salt and usually highly processed. The World Health Organization defends the use of nutritional labeling and the supply of nutritional information, as fundamental strategies to improve food choices, with labeling being a fundamental tool in consumers' access to information on food, allowing them to carry out more conscious and informed choices and make a safer and more adequate selection.

Objective: This bibliographic review aims to compile the information available in the scientific literature on the impact of food product labeling on the consumeres behavior.

Methodology: This review was elaborated based on a search carried out in the PUBMED database. The keywords used in the bibliographic research were: "consumer" AND "behavior" AND "labelling".

Results: Consumer behavior towards labeling is influenced by personal characteristics such as age, academic qualifications, economic circumstances and lifestyle. However, there are extrinsic (price, packaging and brand) and intrinsic (organoleptic characteristics and nutritional information) attributes that can equally influence the motivation to purchase a given product. There is strong evidence that interpretive labels (those that provide information about foods using meaningful symbols and/or colors) perform better than non-interpretive labels. to direct consumers to certain foods (for example, using a stop sign logo, meaningful colors that signal 'stop' or a low rating) are also effective in changing consumer behaviour.

Conclusions: The development of a nutritional labeling is clearly more beneficial to help consumers choose healthier food products with a more adequate and balanced nutritional composition. It is important to carry out education campaigns among the population, in order to clarify doubts and teach consumers how to interpret and use the label, so that in this way they can make more assertive and healthy choices.