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The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between nutrition knowledge and grocery store nutrition label use, with using nutrition information disclosure on menu selection in a group of hospitality management students, who shall be responsible for menu labelling in their future careers.

A between-subject design included 324 students, who were randomly assigned to choose from a menu labelled as follows: unlabelled; kcal label only; graphical label providing information on the per cent of the recommended daily intake of energy and four nutrients. Their nutrition knowledge and habit of reading grocery store nutrition labels were tested using an additional questionnaire.

The results showed that the provision of energy value information resulted in the selection of less energetic, less fat and less salted food, while a graphical label additionally led to the selection of food having a lower saturated fatty acid (SFA) and sugar content. Multiple regression analysis showed that the habit of packaged food nutrition label reading was a significant predictor of choosing food having a lower energy (p<0.001), fat (p<0.001), SFA (p<0.001), sugar (p<0.001) and salt (p=0.003) content, while the influence of nutrition knowledge on food selection was proven insignificant.

Given the established positive impact of menu labelling, these findings support the future European policy mandating energy and nutrient content disclosure on menus, but also point to the need for more-intense consumer education.

In the age of “big data,” one of the most important capabilities that differentiates the winners from the losers in the intensely competitive grocery market is how successfully a firm can harness its vast amounts of shopper data to become more shopper-centric. Grocery retailers struggle with how to manage the tremendous amount of data available to them and best leverage their frequent shopper data to derive insights. These data also present an opportunity for academic research on decision-making and evaluation of strategic initiatives. This chapter discusses three case studies that illustrate the various capabilities of frequent shopper data in generating shopper insights. Specifically, using frequent shopper data for millions of shoppers, the three case studies demonstrate how frequent shopper data can be used as an important information asset for understanding differences and similarities among different shopper groups (Case Study 1), as a means to assess the effectiveness of store redesigns/environment changes (Case Study 2), and as a key tool for evaluating program success (Case Study 3). The chapter concludes with a discussion of how successful collaboration between practitioners and academics can be a boon to both business success and academic research.

This observational study set out to investigate the effect of sensory description labels on consumer choice of apples in a grocery retail store.

An independent observation study was conducted in a retail grocery store setting. A total of 1,623 consumers were observed over a four‐day period in four different sessions, each using three apple varieties (JONAGOLD, INGRID MARIE, and ELISE). Marketing strategies differed between the sessions as follows: sort name labelling only, sort name and sensory description labelling, sort name and sensory semantic description labelling, and sort name labelling and allowing consumers to taste the apples before choosing.

Consumer product choice was affected by the sensory description labels. When only the sort name was given on the label, the consumers tended to choose INGRID MARIE, which has a strong sort name. With the addition of sensory description labels, the consumer choice shifted to ELISE, which had been chosen with a low frequency when only sort name was given, but was chosen with a high frequency when sensory description labelling was used.

The study was limited to red apples and one national market.

Practitioners, managers, and marketers may benefit from using proper sensory labelling as a marketing tool for various food products, such as apples, in a grocery retail store.

This study shows the importance and value of sensory description label marketing for food products in grocery retail stores. Little attention has previously been paid to the research area within sensory marketing communication concerning the interplay of sensory perception of food and the formulation of marketing labels, or taste marketing. This paper also addresses the possible interaction between the disciplines of sensory and marketing science.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study using photoelicitation interviews to investigate the relationship between the habitualised and unconscious aspects of consumers' food choices, the front‐of‐pack nutrition labelling schemes on food products and the healthiness of their diets.

To this end, photographs of ten German middle‐class families at different stages of the family lifecycle were taken at the point of purchase (during a shopping trip made by the main person responsible for meal planning) and at the point of consumption (during a family meal at home). The paper used selected photographs as stimuli for photoelicitation. The interviews were recorded and analysed using a holistic approach.

Four themes concerning food characteristics, participants' food choices and their healthiness emerged from the data: perceived time pressure at the point of purchase; the relevance of nutrition information for making inferences with regard to the healthiness and tastiness of products; consumers' trust in nutrition information; and their use of this information at the point of purchase or point of consumption.

Photoelicitation interviews allowed us to bridge the gap between researchers and respondents and to study what happens in real‐life situations when consumers go shopping and prepare family meals.

By putting nutrition information on food packaging, especially on the front of the pack, manufacturers and retailers enable consumers to make faster and healthier decisions at the point of purchase – i.e. as long as the consumers notice, understand, trust and like the labelling and use it in making their final decision. Front‐of‐pack labels are of less relevance at the point of consumption.

The paper provides a number of insights into the processes involved in making healthy (or unhealthy) food decisions. It also provides directions for future studies in visual research and in the fields of consumer behaviour, marketing and public policy.

To survey consumers living in Paris, France, to determine the extent to which they use nutrition labels, and to determine the percentage of French consumers who use nutrition labels, how often they use nutrition labels, and how they would like to see current nutrition labels improved. The researchers also wanted to determine the reasons why consumers do not use nutrition labels, and to try and assess users' and non‐users' perceptions about mandatory nutrition labelling.

French consumers (n  =  355) were surveyed in supermarkets in Paris and its suburbs, using a 21‐item questionnaire in May 2004. Interviewers used questionnaires to assess the frequency of respondents' nutrition label use, to investigate the specific nutrient information most commonly consulted on nutrition labels, the types of products on which consumers most often tend to consult nutrition labels, and to collect demographic information.

Only 45.1 per cent of the sample reported reading nutrition labels, with the majority of consumers reading labels only occasionally. Non‐label readers cited lack of interest as the primary reason why they do not read labels, but 95 per cent of the sample, when asked about mandatory nutrition labeling, felt that nutrition labeling should be required of food manufacturers. Research limitations/implications The sample size was small, participation was voluntary and was limited to the city of Paris and its suburbs, and therefore cannot be generalized to the French population.

This is the first study to collect data in a point‐of‐purchase setting in order to examine whether or not French consumers use nutrition labels.

There is currently limited data available on the Saudi population’s adoption of nutritional guidelines or on other factors influencing food purchasing behaviors. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of nutrition label use, explore factors that could influence food choices during grocery shopping and evaluate the association of these factors with the sociodemographic characteristics of mothers.

Mothers were recruited at a community event. They were requested to complete a questionnaire that assessed social and lifestyle characteristics as well as product features that influence food choices during grocery shopping.

The study included 157 mothers. The prevalence of label reading was high with 69% of participants always or mostly reading labels pre-purchase. Features that were most likely to “always” influence purchase choices included: product healthfulness (57.3%), children’s preference (45.9%), specific needs of a family member (38.9%). The feature “awareness campaigns and workshops” was found to be associated with both low and high-income groups. There was a poor understanding of what the “light” food label meant with only 37.6% answering correctly.

Further research is needed with a higher sample size with diverse sociodemographic characteristics.

Saudi mothers are influenced by product healthfulness as well as children’s and family members’ needs when grocery shopping. There was a high prevalence of reading nutrition labels prepurchase. These findings can inform future public health policy on the main drivers for food purchasing decisions and the need for educational initiatives in Saudi Arabia.

The present research collates factors influencing food choices

Using a Constrained Choice Theory framework, this paper will identify variation in choosing the constraint-reflective priorities of budget, taste, or health by sociodemographic group, familial status, and weight category. Identifying which groups experience unique constraints will allow for customized healthy eating programs to address barriers specific to each group.

Data are derived from a paper survey of families with children in Lexington, KY and analyzed using logistic regression.

The results of this study confirm that some sociodemographic groups are more likely to choose priorities that reflect contextual constraints in their lives than others. In particular, having a higher income reduces likelihood of prioritizing budget and increases chances of prioritizing taste. Being married or cohabitating is correlated with choosing health, but having more children reduces the likelihood of prioritizing health. Being obese correlates with increased likelihood of prioritizing budget. Membership in each of these categories reflects constraints on which foods are purchased for the home.

Families are encouraged to improve their diets by eating at home, but families face many constraints when choosing healthy foods at the grocery store. Understanding the constraints experienced by various groups when shopping for food will lead to health policy that more fully addresses barriers to healthy eating for groups with disproportionately high incidence of diet-related disease.

This paper extends Constrained Choice Theory by applying it to a new aspect of health, purchasing groceries, and also by examining a wider variety of sociodemographic groups than previous research.

The fast-food market is one area which faces little regulation of visible nutritional information on menus and food packaging to encourage healthy food choices. Additionally, nutritional information’s effectiveness is mostly unknown in the fast-food market. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the effectiveness of various forms of nutritional labelling methods and information by analysing the consumer decision-making process of 248 fast-food consumers.

Three discrete choice experiments are used to compare three popular nutritional symbol methods. Consumer preferences for these symbols are extracted using a “choice-based” conjoint analysis, while controlling for price and branding of fast-food products.

It is found that a very simple “traffic light signal” is the best signal for suggesting healthiness, with as much as 41 per cent of the importance in consumer decision making (p<0.01), over that of product pricing and even product brand and performs better than more information laden guided daily amounts symbols and health endorsement methods (attributing 27 and 13 per cent in their respective studies). This highlights the fine balance between too much and too little food nutrition information and (most notably) how specific nutritional information methods can be even more influential on food choices than a change in product price might.

There is currently a lack of research into the use of nutritional cues on influencing fast-food choices. Additionally, most previous studies focus on the isolated effect of nutrition labels.

Nutrition labels provide a cost-effective method of conveying nutrition information to consumers. This study aimed to assess the use of nutrition facts panels, knowledge of traffic light labelling (TLL) and perceived healthiness of food items using TLL among consumers.

A web-based cross-sectional study was conducted among adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) (n = 1,322). TLL knowledge score was derived for each participant. Conjoint analysis was used to calculate the utilities and relative importance of the perceived healthiness scores for four attributes (fat, saturated fat, total sugar, salt) at the aggregate level.

Participants had a positive attitude towards TLL but were less familiar with TLL than the nutrition facts panel (47.4 vs 85.8%). The mean TLL knowledge score was 3.6 out of 7 (51.6%). Younger age, higher education, higher income, and health-related qualifications were associated with higher scores. Conjoint analysis showed that participants tend to choose products with greener labels, especially for sugars (80.1%) and avoid red labels for fats. Sugars had the highest percentage value of relative importance compared to the other attributes (27.1%).

The study outcomes offer valuable insights into the extent of consumer awareness, comprehension and utilization of nutrition facts panels in the UAE. These findings contribute essential knowledge for a deeper understanding of the impact of nutrition labels on consumer behaviour and decision-making in the region.

Food retailing began to change in the early 1950's with the introduction of self selection in shops. By 1987, this self selection accounted for 72% of the grocery trade. The abolition of retail price maintenance in 1964 was another important factor in the retail revolution and now just five large multiples dominate our food buying (see Table 1). Table 2 shows the impact of multiple retailing which has led to a rapid reduction in the total number of shops and an increase in the number of superstores which offer the consumer considerable breadth and depth of choice.