Food Standards Agency: Qualitative research to explore people's use of food labelling information

Atricle taken from the Food Standards Agency. To view the article, click here.

The Food Standards Agency has published a piece of work undertaken by IPSOS MORI which looked at consumer attitudes to, and behaviours resulting from, food labelling. The key findings on general food labelling were as follows: first, there is very low engagement with food labels for habitual purchases - as a minimum requirement people need and want to see clearly the food's description, the brand, the 'use by' or 'best before' date, and the price; second, individual dietary requirements are key in determining the use of and engagement with different elements of food labels; third, consumers avoid reading the back of food packs by using words or symbols on the front as 'beacons' to quickly guide shopping; fourth, non-regulated marketing claims and graphics can mislead, overshadow, clutter or disengage consumers with mandatory legislation; fifth, large store brands reassure on safety; sixth, well known brands have a halo effect - signifying quality and safety, and distracting from other information; seventh, the importance of food label information increases when buying for other people, particularly babies and young children; and eighth, 'best before' and 'use by' are confusing terms - low understanding leads to relaxed attitudes towards date labels once in the home.

The main objectives were to:

• determine what information people refer to when shopping, and to what extent different types of labelling information affects purchase decisions
• explore behaviour around country of origin information
• highlight any issues regarding the user-friendliness of food labels
• investigate how people interact with labels in the home
• develop insights based on advanced technologies such as eye-tracking.

Key findings

General food labelling

• there is very low engagement with food labels for habitual purchases - as a minimum requirement people need and want to see clearly the food's description, the brand, the 'use by' or 'best before' date, and the price
• individual dietary requirements are key in determining the use of and engagement with different elements of food labels
• consumers avoid reading the back of food packs by using words or symbols on the front as 'beacons' to quickly guide shopping
• non-regulated marketing claims and graphics can mislead, overshadow, clutter or disengage consumers with mandatory legislation
• large store brands reassure on safety
• well known brands have a halo effect - signifying quality and safety, and distracting from other information
• the importance of food label information increases when buying for other people, particularly babies and young children
• 'best before' and 'use by' are confusing terms - low understanding leads to relaxed attitudes towards date labels once in the home.

Country of origin labelling

Country of origin information is not a priority when shopping in the supermarket.

Country of origin information impacts on different levels:

• safety is a universal priority for consumers, but they are easily reassured about safety. The label 'British' is an important benchmark, particularly for meat, and the British flag acts as a general umbrella assurance for food miles, farming standards, and even organic, which results in lots of blurring of meanings (e.g. animal welfare is implicit in organic)
• consumers engage more with terms such as 'organic'/'free range' if they are prioritising animal welfare. Animal welfare can be important to people but is rarely a factor in choice as consumers feel they are not given the information
• food miles are low priority when shopping - consumers say they are concerned about food miles, but their behaviour suggests otherwise
• authenticity is important for products that, in consumers' minds, are strongly associated with a particular country
• country of origin information has greater influence in certain categories such as meat where some consumers feel more comfortable with locally sourced products.

To download the Executive Summary, click here.

To download the full report, click here. 

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