IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jcopol/v47y2024i2d10.1007_s10603-024-09563-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healthier Food Choices: From Consumer Information to Consumer Empowerment in EU Law

Author

Listed:
  • N. Gokani

    (University of Essex)

Abstract

This article evaluates the European Union’s efforts to regulate consumer food information with the aim of improving consumer nutrition as part of its broader consumer protection agenda. With nearly a million deaths attributed to unhealthy diets annually, the EU’s New Consumer Agenda, its Farm to Fork Strategy, and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan all highlight the objective of empowering consumers to make informed, healthy food choices. This underscores the EU’s longstanding emphasis on regulating information to protect consumers, an approach which is even stronger with nutrition more specifically. This article shows that the EU food information law is based on two beliefs. First, consumers are given food information that is sufficient, accurate, non-misleading, clear and easy to understand and they are, therefore, well-informed. Second, well-informed consumers are empowered. This article argues that both of these beliefs are misguided. The current food information rules do not truly inform consumers well and do not, on their own, empower consumers to make healthy dietary decisions. Consequently, this article expresses scepticism about the ability of the current rules to promote improved nutrition. In light of the critiques of the current rules, this article offers suggestions for an improved food information paradigm. In addition to rules that would more effectively inform consumers, such a paradigm would acknowledge the limitations of information to empower healthier food choices and, therefore, give greater weight to more substantive interventions. This would align food law with broader trends in consumer protection law and thereby genuinely promote healthier nutrition.

Suggested Citation

  • N. Gokani, 2024. "Healthier Food Choices: From Consumer Information to Consumer Empowerment in EU Law," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 271-296, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jcopol:v:47:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10603-024-09563-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s10603-024-09563-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10603-024-09563-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10603-024-09563-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. J. Luzak & A. J. Wulf & O. Seizov & M. B. M. Loos & M. Junuzović, 2023. "ABC of Online Consumer Disclosure Duties: Improving Transparency and Legal Certainty in Europe," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 46(3), pages 307-333, September.
    2. Manon Egnell & Paolo Crosetto & Tania D’almeida & Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot & Mathilde Touvier & Bernard Ruffieux & Serge Hercberg & Laurent Muller & Chantal Julia, 2019. "Modelling the impact of different front-of-package nutrition labels on mortality from non-communicable chronic disease," Post-Print hal-02190212, HAL.
    3. Pierre Chandon & Brian Wansink, 2007. "The Biasing Health Halos of Fast-Food Restaurant Health Claims: Lower Calorie Estimates and Higher Side-Dish Consumption Intentions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 34(3), pages 301-314, June.
    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. Clinton Amos & Anthony Allred & Lixuan Zhang, 2017. "Do Biodegradable Labels Lead to an Eco-safety Halo Effect?," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 279-298, September.
    2. Demartini, Eugenio & Ricci, Elena Claire & Mattavelli, Simone & Stranieri, Stefanella & Gaviglio, Anna & Banterle, Alessandro & Richetin, Juliette & Perugini, Marco, 2018. "Exploring Consumer Biased Evaluations: Halos Effects of Local Food and of Related Attributes," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 9(4), August.
    3. Lien, Jaimie W. & Zheng, Jie, 2018. "Are work intensity and healthy eating substitutes? Field evidence on food choices under varying workloads," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 370-401.
    4. Kee, Jennifer Y. & Segovia, Michelle S. & Palma, Marco A., 2023. "Slim or Plus-Size Burrito? A natural experiment of consumers’ restaurant choice," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    5. Daniel Sheehan & Ryan Hamilton & Ramnath K Chellappa, 2022. "When Is HILO Low? Price Image Formation Based on Frequency versus Depth Pricing Strategies [The Influence of Prior Beliefs, Frequency Cues, and Magnitude Cues on Consumers’ Perceptions of Comparati," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 49(4), pages 543-560.
    6. Orquin, Jacob L. & Scholderer, Joachim, 2015. "Consumer judgments of explicit and implied health claims on foods: Misguided but not misled," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 144-157.
    7. Pierre Dubois & Paulo Albuquerque & Olivier Allais & Céline Bonnet & Patrice Bertail & Pierre Combris & Saadi Lahlou & Natalie Rigal & Bernard Ruffieux & Pierre Chandon, 2021. "Effects of front-of-pack labels on the nutritional quality of supermarket food purchases: evidence from a large-scale randomized controlled trial," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 119-138, January.
    8. Shin, Soye & Gandhi, Mihir & Puri, Jyotika & Finkelstein, Eric, 2024. "Influencing the nutritional quality of grocery purchases: A randomized trial to evaluate the impact of a social norm-based behavioral intervention with and without a loss-framed financial incentive," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    9. Nagpal, Anish & Lei, Jing & Khare, Adwait, 2015. "To Choose or to Reject: The Effect of Decision Frame on Food Customization Decisions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 91(3), pages 422-435.
    10. Jingwen Liu & Peng Zou & Yu Ma, 2022. "The Effect of Air Pollution on Food Preferences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 410-423, March.
    11. Ellison, Brenna D. & Lusk, Jayson L. & Davis, David W., 2012. "The Value and Cost of Restaurant Calorie Labels: Results from a Field Experiment," 2012 AAEA/EAAE Food Environment Symposium 123529, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Hu Xie & Elizabeth A. Minton & Lynn R. Kahle, 2016. "Cake or fruit? Influencing healthy food choice through the interaction of automatic and instructed mental simulation," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 627-644, December.
    13. Wei, Wei & Kim, Gaeul & Miao, Li & Behnke, Carl & Almanza, Barbara, 2018. "Consumer inferences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims on packaged foods," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 186-201.
    14. Cleeren, Kathleen & Geyskens, Kelly & Verhoef, Peter C. & Pennings, Joost M.E., 2016. "Regular or low-fat? An investigation of the long-run impact of the first low-fat purchase on subsequent purchase volumes and calories," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 896-906.
    15. Jie, Yun, 2018. "Prepayment effect: Prepayment with clawback increases task participation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 210-218.
    16. Aner Tal, 2021. "Wanting More, Seeing Less: Hunger Reduces Calorie Evaluations," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-12, November.
    17. Pruitt, J. Ross & Holcomb, Rodney B., 2017. "Impacts of Food Safety Recalls and Consumer Information on Restaurant Performance," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 48(3), November.
    18. Rybak, Garrett & Burton, Scot & Johnson, Alicia M. & Berry, Christopher, 2021. "Promoted claims on food product packaging: Comparing direct and indirect effects of processing and nutrient content claims," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 464-479.
    19. Hogreve, Jens & Matta, Shashi & Hettich, Alexander S. & Reczek, Rebecca Walker, 2021. "How Do Social Norms Influence Parents’ Food Choices for Their Children? The Role of Social Comparison and Implicit Self-Theories," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 173-190.
    20. Szocs, Courtney & Lefebvre, Sarah, 2017. "Spread or stacked? Vertical versus horizontal food presentation, portion size perceptions, and consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 249-257.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer; Health; EU; Food; Information; Law;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:kap:jcopol:v:47:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s10603-024-09563-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.