Claiming health in food products
Open accessAbstract
Health-related information is increasingly used on food products to convey their benefits. Health claims as a subcategory of these messages link the beneficial component, functions or health outcomes with specific products. For consumers, health claims seem to carry the message of increased healthiness, but not necessarily making the product more appealing. The wording of the claim seems to have little impact on claim perception, yet the health image of carrier products is important. From consumer-related factors the relevance and attitudes towards functional foods play a role, whereas socio-demographic factors have only minor impact and the impact seems to be case-dependent. Familiarity with claims and functional foods increase perceived healthiness and acceptance of these products. Apparently consumers make rather rational interpretations of claims and their benefits when forced to assess the information, but we still know relatively little about consumer understanding of the message content in claims and even less about the assessment of personal relevance of the claimed benefits. In future studies more emphasis should be put on including contextual influences and realistic conditions in assessing consumer understanding and use of health claims in purchase decisions.
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Under certain conditions, health claims can play an important role in influencing consumers' purchase and consumption decisions.
“Under certain conditions, such claims can play an important role in influencing the consumer's purchase and consumption decisions (Lahteenmaki, 2013;Miklavec, Pravst, Grunert, Klopčič, & Pohar, 2015;Nocella & Kennedy, 2012;Pothoulaki & Chryssochoidis, 2009;Van Wezemael, Caputo, Nayga, Chryssochoidis, & Verbeke, 2014;Wills, Storcksdieck genannt Bonsmann, Kolka, & Grunert, 2012).”
From Comparison of requirements for using health claims on foods in the European Union, the USA, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand (2021) · cites this paper as Lahteenmaki, 2013
Consumers pay little attention to qualifiers that express the level of certainty of the evidence behind a health claim.
“consumers pay little attention to qualifiers that express the level of certainty of the evidence behind the claim (Lahteenmaki, 2013).”
From Comparison of requirements for using health claims on foods in the European Union, the USA, Canada, and Australia/New Zealand (2021) · cites this paper as Lahteenmaki, 2013
Consumers are more interested in functional foods with health promoting claims than in disease risk reduction claims.
“In particular consumers are more interested in FF with health promoting claims than in disease risk reduction claims (Lahteenmaki, 2013;Van Kleef et al., 2005).”
From Emerging trends in European food, diets and food industry (2018) · cites this paper as Lahteenmaki, 2013
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- Authors
- Lähteenmäki, L.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Lähteenmäki, Liisa
- ORCID
- Lähteenmäki, Liisa
- Venue
- Food Quality and Preference
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-03
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 196-201
- ISSN
- 0950-3293 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2025663784
- Cited by
- 318
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 37 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 29 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 13.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- papers.ssrn.com
- Locations
- Food Quality and Preference (publishedVersion)
- SSRN Electronic Journal (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Sensory Analysis and Statistical Methods
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Organic Food and Agriculture
- Keywords
- health claims, functional foods, consumer perception, perceived healthiness, consumer attitudes, purchase decision, sociodemographic factors
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