Korean J Community Nutr.  2022 Oct;27(5):387-396. 10.5720/kjcn.2022.27.5.387.

Effect of Type of Nutrition Labeling on the Healthfulness Evaluation and Purchase Intentions of Home Meal Replacements (HMR) in South Korea

• Joe MY

• KMID: 2534863
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2022.27.5.387

Abstract

Objectives
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the types of nutrition labeling on the processing fluency, health evaluation and purchase intentions of home meal replacements.
Methods
This online experimental study was conducted from December 29 to 31, 2019 and included 134 participants. The research design was 2 (Objective nutrition labeling: present vs. absent) X 2 (Evaluative nutrition labeling: present vs. absent) and each participant was randomly assigned to one of four groups. As stimuli, five types of ready-to-heat foods sold in the market were used.
Results
Processing fluency (4.91 points) and purchase intention (4.13 points) were significantly high when both evaluative nutrition labeling and objective nutrition labeling were presented, and healthfulness evaluation (4.47 points) was significantly high when only evaluative nutrition labeling was presented. All three variables were measured to be high when evaluative nutrition labeling was presented. The evaluative nutrition labeling that visually represented nutritional values was found to be more effective for processing fluency, healthfulness evaluation, and purchase intention than the objective nutrition labeling representing the nutritional value of the product in numbers and proportions.
Conclusions
These results show that it is necessary to develop various types of evaluative nutrition labeling to enable consumers to choose and purchase healthful home meal replacements. Also, consumer education and public campaigns are needed to encourage consumers to select healthier home-cooked meals using nutrition labeling.

Keyword

home meal replacement (HMR); nutrition labeling type; processing fluency; healthfulness evaluation; purchase intention