2 Awareness of label elements
Both unprompted and prompted awareness were measured. Unprompted awareness measures the respondent's ability to recall a food labelling element, it provides an indication of what elements are more ‘top of mind’ than others and is to some extent a ‘memory test’. It is not however the best way to measure awareness of specific label elements, particularly given the number of different elements included in the study, that some elements are much newer than others, and that some elements are similar or related to each other. It was known from the qualitative research that some consumers describe incorrectly the features of particular elements, and others use one label element name and mean another (e.g. nutrition claim versus NIP; ingredients list versus allergen declaration).
For these reasons prompted awareness is a more realistic and accurate measure than unprompted awareness. Prompted awareness measures recognition - a more appropriate mental task, and thus a more accurate measure of 'true awareness'. Therefore throughout this study, we refer to and report in more detail on prompted measures of awareness. The PowerPoint presentation slides provide further detail on statistical differences between demographic subgroups for prompted awareness.
2 .1. Unprompted awareness
In assessing unprompted awareness of label elements and label information, respondents were asked: firstly, thinking about all of the different types of food products available to buy, can you tell me what kinds of information can be found on packaged food and drink products?
At this stage in the interview no label information had been shown to respondents. Responses are shown in Table 2.1 over the page. Multiple responses were possible.
Table 2.1: Unprompted awareness of label information
Label element (exact mentions) | Unprompted awareness % |
BASE: 1940 | |
Ingredients list | 49 |
NIP | 40 |
Date Mark | 25 |
Country of origin | 17 |
Fat | 17 |
Additives | 14 |
Weight | 14 |
Percentage (%) label | 14 |
Brand | 13 |
Nutrient claim | 10 |
Sugar | 9 |
Price | 9 |
Manufacturer | 8 |
Preparation / storage instructions | 7 |
Endorsements | 6 |
Warning statement | 4 |
Allergen declaration | 4 |
Health claim | 4 |
Advisory statement | 3 |
GMO declaration | 3 |
Novel food | < 1 |
Irradiated food | < 1 |
Label element (other non-exact mentions) | Unprompted awareness % |
Specific nutrients (other than fat, sugar) | 21 |
Other product information | 8 |
Specific nutrient claim | 6 |
Specific ingredients | 8 |
All other mentions | 11 |
By far the most frequently reported elements were the ingredients list and the NIP. One quarter of all respondents reported unprompted awareness of the date mark. Beyond this, unprompted awareness of other elements was relatively low with less than 6% reporting awareness of endorsements,warning statements,allergen declaration,health claims,advisory statements,GMO and novel foods. Interestingly six of the label elements in this study (ingredients list,NIP,date mark, country of origin, percentage label and nutrient claim) were more top of mind (unprompted awareness), than weight, brand and/or price information.
2.2. Prompted awareness
In order to gain a measure of recognition (prompted awareness) of label elements, respondents were shown a series of pictures depicting label elements and were asked:These pictures show 16 different types of information found on labels. Which of these do you recognise? Responses are shown in Table 2.2 below.
Table 2.2: Prompted awareness of label elements
Label element | Prompted awareness % |
BASE: 1940 | |
Date Mark | 93 |
Ingredients list | 89 |
NIP | 86 |
Country of origin | 80 |
Nutrient claim | 70 |
Preparation / storage instructions | 65 |
Percentage (%) label | 62 |
Warning statement | 60 |
Advisory statement | 59 |
Allergen declaration | 43 |
Endorsements | 42 |
GMO declaration | 33 |
Health claim | 24 |
Novel food | 12 |
Irradiated food | 6 |
Prompted awareness for all elements was significantly higher than unprompted awareness. As has been the case in other consumer labelling studies date marks were the most recognised labelling element, with 93% of respondents saying they recognised it6 [1] . The ingredients list,NIP, andcountry of originwere also widely recognised. GMO declaration,health claims, irradiated food and novel food label elements were the least recognised.
A fictitious endorsement; ‘Friendly Production Processes’ was included in the final set of picture cards used to measure prompted awareness (card 16). This was included to provide a measure of the validity of respondents’ recall and recognition of the legitimate endorsements, and more generally recognition of all other elements.
Only 2% of respondents reported recognising the fictitious endorsement, which strengthens our confidence in the validity of recall results for all other elements, and the overall study per se.
A number of significant differences amongst demographic sub-groups were observed in prompted awareness. These varied between label elements, and are summarised below:
- Age (allergen declaration, % label, nutrient claim, advisory statement, warning statement, GMO, preparation & storage instructions);
- Gender (NIP, allergen declaration, nutrient claim, warning statement);
- Education (allergen declaration, advisory statement, country of origin);
- Income (advisory statement, country of origin);
- Country (ingredients list, NIP, nutrient claim, advisory statement, warning statement, GMO, preparation & storage instructions, novel foods);
- Children (NIP, advisory statement, warning statement, GMO);
- Special health needs (NIP, allergen declaration, % label, nutrient claim, warning statement, GMO);
- Health consciousness (% label, nutrient claim, advisory statement, warning declaration).
These differences are reported in detail in the PowerPoint presentation (slides 39-40) and the data tables.