Consumer understanding and nutritional communication: key issues in the context of the new EU legislation

Background Nutrition communication by means of nutrition and health claims and otherwise, holds the potential to contribute to public health by stimulating informed healthier food choices and enhanced healthfocussed competition in the market place, provided that the health messages are trustworthy (i.e. scientifically substantiated) and correctly used and interpreted by the consumer. Not surprisingly, these two considerations constitute the cornerstone of the new EU legislation on nutrition and health claims, in which evidence for consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims is a new requirement. Aim of the study To review some of the key issues in consumer understanding of nutritional communication as a basis for reflection on the consumer understanding element of the new EU legislation on nutrition and health claims. Conclusions There is a need for more methodologically advanced research in consumer understanding of nutrition and health claims as a basis for truly assessing the real-life use of such information and its actual effect on consumer food choices. Such approaches are pertinent in light of the evaluation and approval process of (new) nutrition and health claims as required under the new EU legislation on nutrition and health claims

Consumer acceptance of nutrigenomics based personalised nutrition

Nutrigenomics is a new and promising development in nutritional science which aims to understand the fundamental molecular processes affected by foods. Despite general agreement on its promise for better understanding diet¿health relationships, less consensus exists among experts on the potential of spin-offs aimed at the consumer such as personalised nutrition. Research into consumer acceptance of such applications is scarce. The present study develops a set of key hypotheses on public acceptance of personalised nutrition and tests these in a representative sample of Dutch consumers. An innovative consumer research methodology is used in which consumers evaluate short films which are systematically varied scenarios for the future of personalised nutrition. Consumer evaluations of these films, which are pre-tested in a pilot study, allow a formal test of how consumer perceptions of personalised nutrition drive consumer acceptance and through which fundamental psychological processes these effects are mediated. Public acceptance is enhanced if consumers can make their genetic profile available free at their own choice, if the actual spin-off products provide a clearly recognisable advantage to the consumer, and are easy to implement into the daily routine. Consumers prefer communication on nutrigenomics and personalised nutrition by expert stakeholders to be univocal and aimed at building support with consumers and their direct environments for this intriguing new development. Additionally, an exploratory segmentation analysis indicated that people have different focal points in their preferences for alternative scenarios of personalised nutrition. The insights obtained from the present study provide guidance for the successful further development of nutrigenomics and its applications

Leren van de fanaten die wél gezond eten

Van elke honderd Nederlanders eet er slechts eentje precies zoals dat zou moeten volgens de Richtlijnen Goede Voeding die zijn opgesteld door de Gezondheidsraad. Ondanks voorlichtingscampagnes, labels op gezonde producten en een stroom van gezondheidsnieuws. De Wageningse hooglaren Cees van Woerkum en Hans van Trijp denken na over hoe het verder moe

Consumentenzorgen over de intensieve veehouderij : bedreiging of kans om tussensegmenten te creëren?

De auteurs analyseren de marketing en consumentengedragsinsteek aan de hand van drie vragen: (a) waarom nu, (b) is dit een bedreiging of een kans voor de veehouderij, en (c) hoe kunnen de kansen worden benut? De conclusie is dat consumentenzorgen over intensieve veehouderij volop kansen bieden voor de sector, met name om uit de commoditysfeer te raken

'Verleid consumenten tot gezond gedrag'

Dat de gemiddelde Nederlander niet gezond leeft, dat is ondertussen bekend. Maar wat doe je eraan? Met marketing kom je een heel eind, weet Hans van Trijp, hoogleraar bij de Wageningse leerstoelgroep Marktkunde en consumentengedra

A scale for consumer confidence in the safety of food

The aim of this study was to develop and validate a scale to measure general consumer confidence in the safety of food. Results from exploratory and confirmatory analyses indicate that general consumer confidence in the safety of food consists of two distinct dimensions, optimism and pessimism, which can co-exist. Since optimism and pessimism may not be activated by the same events, or at the same time, these dimensions should be assessed and evaluated separately, in order to increase understanding of consumer confidence in the safety of food, and to develop effective food risk communicatio

Transforum system innovation towards sustainable food. A review

Innovations in the agri-food sector are needed to create a sustainable food supply. Sustainable food supply requires unexpectedly that densely populated regions remain food producers. A Dutch innovation program has aimed at showing the way forward through creating a number of practice and scientific projects. Generic lessons from the scientific projects in this program are likely to be of interest to agricultural innovation in other densely populated regions in the world. Based on the executed scientific projects, generic lessons across the whole innovation program are derived. We found that the agricultural sector requires evolutionary rather than revolutionary changes to reshaping institutions. Measuring sustainability is possible against benchmarks and requires stakeholder agreement on sustainability values. Results show the importance of multiple social views and multiple stakeholder involvement in agricultural innovation. Findings call for flexible goal rather than process-oriented management of innovation. Findings also emphasise the essential role of profit in anchoring sustainable development in business. The results agree with concepts of evolutionary innovation. We conclude that there is no single best solution to making the agri-food sector more sustainable densely populated areas, but that the combination of a range of solutions and approaches is likely to provide the best way forward

Evaluation "Angels and Demons" (WP-116)

One way to generate the money needed for sustainable innovation is by consumer choosing freely for sustainable products. This way, consumer choice pays for the innovative production method. This requires consumer willingness to buy these products. Willingness to buy is however not so easily measured as the intentions to buy may only partially predict actual purchase behaviour. There is a gap between what consumer say they want, and what they do in practice. For the specific case of sustainable production, consumers often say they are very positive about sustainable products (angelic opinion), yet in their daily behaviour they frequently tend to choose convenient and cheap products (demonic behaviour)