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Effects of health labels on expected and actual taste perception of soup
journal contribution
posted on 2012-09-01, 00:00 authored by Gie LiemGie Liem, N Toraman Aydin, E H ZandstraHealth labels such as "reduced in salt" or the "healthy choices" logo aim to facilitate consumers' healthy food choices. However, they may act as a warning sign for those consumers who are more worried about the taste of the products, rather than healthiness. This study assessed the potential effect of front-of-pack health labels on consumers' expectations and actual perceived taste quality of a chicken soup. Participants ranging from 19 to 67. years of age (28 females, 18 males, mean age 45.3 ± 13.7. years) were invited to come to a central location to taste a variety of soups. Consumers tasted the same soup with different labels (e.g. now reduced in salt, healthy choices-tick logo) in a within-subjects design. Before and after consumers tasted the soup, they were asked to rate liking, saltiness, and desire to consume the soup. The results suggest that consumers expected the salt taste intensity (P< 0.001) to be lower when the label stated "now reduced in salt", compared to the soup without such label. Furthermore, consumers expected the soup with the tick logo to be more liked than the same soup with the tick logo and the "now reduced salt" label (P= 0.1). After consumers tasted the soups, no differences in liking or desire were found between the soups with the different labels.This study suggests that labels which notify consumers of a reduction in salt may have an adverse effect on consumers' expectation and potentially on the actual perceived taste of products.
History
Journal
Food quality and preferenceVolume
25Issue
2Pagination
192 - 197Publisher
ElsevierLocation
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsPublisher DOI
ISSN
0950-3293Language
engPublication classification
C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2012, Crown CopyrightUsage metrics
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