Claims and nutritional messages: what are the impacts on consumer choices?

"Rich in calcium and iron", "Helps strengthen the body's natural defences", "Low sugar", etc. The claims are messages indicated on certain foodstuff packaging stating health and/or nutritional properties of the foodstuffs or their constituents. In order to determine the way in which these messages are perceived by the consumers and how they influence food choices, the ALLEGNUTRI project used a methodology that was both qualitative (consumer discussion groups, sales-point observations, accompanied shopping in stores and laboratories, consumption data collection, etc.) and quantitative (questionnaire submitted to a representative panel of the French population comprising 1,000 people aged eighteen and above).

The origin rather than the nutritional composition

The first result of this work is that despite their concern for their food and health, the French are not receptive to nutritional arguments. The conception that they have of the effect of foodstuffs on their health is in fact far removed from nutritional aspects. As previously described in the literature, this study confirms that for the French consumer, food "good for your health" is first and foremost food that is "natural", of known origin, and which has been produced if possible using traditional processes, without pesticides, chemicals or preservatives, that is to say without "industrial inputs".

Consequently, when French consumers think "good for health", they think "naturalness", not nutrients. When shopping they tend to look for references to the "terroir" (regional taste or produce), to "local", to "naturalness", "freshness" and "quality", and will avoid nutritive additives which arouse their suspicion.

The very large majority of consumers have an adversity to products claiming such-and-such a quality for at least two reasons: firstly because they think that "natural" products do not need to be optimised, and secondly because they question the nature of the processes that food manufacturers use to achieve this.

Developing a nutritional education from childhood

This feeding behaviour can be explained by the cultural specifics and core values of the French feeding model, such as social interaction and shared pleasure. But the authors of this work also underline the role of shortcomings in knowledge of nutrition. During the study, the people surveyed were unable to associate the nutrients (vitamins, magnesium, antioxidants, etc.) with the foods that contain them. Some of the study volunteers only associate vitamins with fruit, while others associate them with all foods indifferently. Many of the volunteers thought that red meat contained fibres or that groundnut oil contained more fat than olive oil.

According to Mohamed Merdji, the project coordinator, these results show that the French have a tendency towards "substantialist" thinking: they imagine that each food is made up of substances that belong exclusively to that food and cannot be found elsewhere. A fruit juice enriched with omega-3 fats whose label indicates that they are from fish oil would therefore be avoided. Conversely, for milk and yoghurts, which are considered natural "functional foods", the addition of calcium would be "tolerated".

Thus the development of nutritionally enriched products claiming health benefits must take into account the use of the product, that is to say determine whether it will be compatible with the core values of the French nutritional model, particularly that of shared pleasure, otherwise it is likely to be rejected by the consumers.

In a secondary conclusion to this work, the authors appeal for nutritional education to be developed from early childhood on the basis of a fun approach through cookery workshops, palate-awakening sessions or factory visits for instance.