The Effects of Nutrition Package Claims, Nutrition Facts Panels, and Motivation to Process Nutrition Information on Consumer Product Evaluations

In a laboratory experiment using a between-subjects design, the authors examine the effects on nutrition and product evaluations of nutrition claims made (e.g., “99% fat free; ” “low in calories ”) on a product package, product nutrition value levels, and enduring motivation to process nutrition information. Enduring motivation is shown to moderate the effects of product nutrition value on consumer evaluations. Also, nutrition claims interact with product nutrition value in affecting consumer perceptions of manufacturer credibility. Given the availability of nutrient levels in the Nutrition Facts panel on the back of the mock package, nutrition claims on the front of the package generally did not affect positively consumers’ overall product and purchase intention evaluations. The authors discuss some implications of these findings, suggestions for further research, and study limitations. 1 1. The generalizability of the findings from this laboratory study may be restricted because the mock package used as the stimulus was examined outside of an actual in-store purchase environment. Because consumers in store settings may spend less time and care examining Nutrition Facts panels and are subject to a variety of other influences (Cole and Balasubramanian 1992), findings from this study may not generalize to such settings.