IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jfpoli/v35y2010i3p221-229.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does nutrition information on food products lead to healthier food choices?

Author

Listed:
  • Barreiro-Hurlé, Jesús
  • Gracia, Azucena
  • de-Magistris, Tiziana

Abstract

This paper examines the link between nutrition label use and consumers' healthier food choices. Label use is considered for the two main types of labels currently found on food products; nutrition facts panels and nutrition/health claims. This link is tested using a three-equation multivariate probit model. Data were obtained from an ad hoc survey conducted in two medium-sized Spanish cities. The results indicate that the use of nutrition information by consumers, whether this involves the fact panel or the claim labels, does influence consumer choice of healthier food products to the same extent, although different types of consumers use the various types of labels considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Barreiro-Hurlé, Jesús & Gracia, Azucena & de-Magistris, Tiziana, 2010. "Does nutrition information on food products lead to healthier food choices?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 221-229, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:221-229
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306-9192(10)00013-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nayga, Rodolfo M., 1996. "Determinants of Consumers' Use of Nutritional Information on Food Packages," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(2), pages 303-312, December.
    2. Ippolito, Pauline M., 1999. "How government policies shape the food and nutrition information environment1," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 295-306, May.
    3. Gracia, Azucena & Loureiro, Maria & Nayga, Rodolfo Jr., 2007. "Do consumers perceive benefits from the implementation of a EU mandatory nutritional labelling program?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 160-174, April.
    4. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    5. Jayachandran N. Variyam, 2008. "Do nutrition labels improve dietary outcomes?," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(6), pages 695-708, June.
    6. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Panagiotis Lazaridis & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2005. "Nutrition knowledge and consumer use of nutritional food labels," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 32(1), pages 93-118, March.
    7. Kim, Sung-Yong & Nayga, Rodolfo M. & Capps, Oral, 2001. "Health Knowledge and Consumer Use of Nutritional Labels: The Issue Revisited," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 30(1), pages 10-19, April.
    8. Vassilis A. Hajivassiliou & Daniel L. McFadden, 1998. "The Method of Simulated Scores for the Estimation of LDV Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 66(4), pages 863-896, July.
    9. Blaylock, James & Smallwood, David & Kassel, Kathleen & Variyam, Jay & Aldrich, Lorna, 1999. "Economics, food choices, and nutrition," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2-3), pages 269-286, May.
    10. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    11. Gourieroux,Christian, 2000. "Econometrics of Qualitative Dependent Variables," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521589857, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Berning, Joshua P. & Chouinard, Hayley H. & Manning, Kenneth C. & McCluskey, Jill J. & Sprott, David E., 2010. "Identifying consumer preferences for nutrition information on grocery store shelf labels," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 429-436, October.
    2. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Panagiotis Lazaridis & Rodolfo M. Nayga Jr, 2009. "On Consumers' Valuation Of Nutrition Information," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(3), pages 223-247, July.
    3. Chang, Hung-Hao & Nayga Jr., Rodolfo M., 2011. "Mother's nutritional label use and children's body weight," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 171-178, April.
    4. Drichoutis, Andreas C. & Lazaridis, Panagiotis & Nayga, Rodolfo M., Jr., 2006. "Nutritional food label use: A theoretical and empirical perspective," 98th Seminar, June 29-July 2, 2006, Chania, Crete, Greece 10033, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Gracia, Azucena & Loureiro, Maria & Nayga, Rodolfo Jr., 2007. "Do consumers perceive benefits from the implementation of a EU mandatory nutritional labelling program?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 160-174, April.
    6. Balcombe, Kelvin & Fraser, Iain & Falco, Salvatore Di, 2010. "Traffic lights and food choice: A choice experiment examining the relationship between nutritional food labels and price," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 211-220, June.
    7. Guan, Lijun & Zhang, Yan & Jin, Shaosheng & Zhou, Lin, 2021. "Understanding the low use rate of food nutrition information in China," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 24(5), April.
    8. Guan, L. & Jin, S. & Huang, Z., 2018. "Time Preference and Food Nutrition Information Search: Evidence from 1220 Chinese Consumers," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277205, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Fichera, Eleonora & von Hinke, Stephanie, 2020. "The response to nutritional labels: Evidence from a quasi-experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    10. Andreas Drichoutis & Panagiotis Lazaridis & Rodolfo Nayga & Maria Kapsokefalou & George Chryssochoidis, 2008. "A theoretical and empirical investigation of nutritional label use," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 9(3), pages 293-304, August.
    11. Priscilla Cecilia Affram & Sarah Darkwa, 2015. "Consumers` knowledge, understanding and use of food label information, and how it affects purchasing decision in ho, Ghana," Asian Journal of Empirical Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 5(3), pages 24-39, March.
    12. Stefanella Stranieri & Lucia Baldi & Alessandro Banterle, 2010. "Do Nutrition Claims Matter to Consumers? An Empirical Analysis Considering European Requirements," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 15-33, February.
    13. Bonanno, Alessandro & Bimbo, Francesco & Cleary, Rebecca & Castellari, Elena, 2018. "Food labels and adult BMI in Italy – An unconditional quantile regression approach," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 199-211.
    14. Giuseppe Croce & Emanuela Ghignoni, 2011. "Overeducation and spatial flexibility in Italian local labour markets," Working Papers in Public Economics 145, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    15. Hany Eldemerdash & Hugh Metcalf & Sara Maioli, 2014. "Twin deficits: new evidence from a developing (oil vs. non-oil) countries’ perspective," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 825-851, November.
    16. O'Brien, Raymond & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2003. "Testing the exogeneity assumption in panel data models with "non classical" disturbances," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0302, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    17. Doko Tchatoka, Firmin & Dufour, Jean-Marie, 2020. "Exogeneity tests, incomplete models, weak identification and non-Gaussian distributions: Invariance and finite-sample distributional theory," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 218(2), pages 390-418.
    18. Robert Mulligan, 1996. "Export-import endogeneity in the context of the Thirlwall- Hussain model: an application of the Durbin-Wu-Hausman test incorporating a Monte Carlo experiment," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 275-279.
    19. Maranzano, Paolo & Cerdeira Bento, Joao Paulo & Manera, Matteo, 2021. "The Role of Education and Income Inequality on Environmental Quality. A Panel Data Analysis of the EKC Hypothesis on OECD," FEEM Working Papers 310225, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    20. Rimal, Arbindra & Fletcher, Stanley M. & McWatters, Kay H., 2000. "Nutrition Considerations In Food Selection," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 3(1), pages 1-16.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:35:y:2010:i:3:p:221-229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.