Assessing consumers’ valuation for Front-of-Package ‘Health’ labeling under FDA guidelines
通过实验室实验研究FDA健康标签对消费者支付意愿的影响，发现单独使用健康标签会降低支付意愿，但提供FDA认证信息可缓解这一负面效应，对政策制定者和食品行业有参考价值。
• Health Front-of-Pack labels alone decrease consumers’ willingness to pay for healthy yogurt. • Credible information, such as FDA qualification, mitigates the negative impact of health labels. • Nutritionally knowledgeable and health-conscious consumers discount health labels on healthy products. • Pleasure-driven, less nutrition-informed, and infrequent label users show disinterest or negativity toward health labels. • Targeted education campaigns should be considered to enhance FDA-endorsed health label effectiveness among consumers. Suboptimal diets contribute significantly to diet-related chronic diseases and mortality in the United States. To address this, Front-of-Pack (FOP) labels have been proposed to help consumers make healthier food choices. In 2022, the FDA introduced 15 potential health labels aimed at providing critical information and nudging consumers toward healthier food choices, yet the effects of these labels on consumer preferences remain ambiguous. Using the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak mechanism in a laboratory experiment, this study investigates the influence of health and taste labels, and information provision, on consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for yogurt qualifying for the FDA-endorsed health label. Findings indicate that health labels alone reduce WTP, potentially due to perceived compromises on taste and skepticism towards health claims. However, the addition of credible information regarding FDA qualification mitigates these negative effects. Exploratory subsample analyses reveal that the health label is discounted among consumers who are nutritionally knowledgeable, health-conscious, pleasure driven, and frequent label users. However, providing information about the health label mitigates this discount among the former three types of consumers. The study underscores the importance of providing credible, detailed information and targeted educational campaigns to enhance the effectiveness of health labels. These insights can inform policymakers and stakeholders in developing more effective food labeling strategies to promote healthier dietary choices and improve public health outcomes. By unraveling the nuances of how consumers respond to health and taste labels, our research offers valuable guidance for designing labeling strategies that resonate with consumer values and preferences.