A new healthy food logo in the Netherlands: nutrition labelling stays high on the agenda



Mayonnaise with Choices logo and Heinz ketchup without

Who's reading the detailed nutrition information at the back of food packages? Not many consumers, and that is why they moved a summary of this information front of pack in the form of a logo, seal of approval or health stamp. Look at the picture at the right; there you see a small nutrition logo at a jar of mayonnaise I found in my kitchen cupboard. These logos are supposed to make your healthy choice more intuitive and easy. Quite an ambitious goal for the typically very small sized logos. Not surprisingly, these logos are currently highly debated and received a great deal of attention in research and policy.


This week, the updated Dutch Choices logo called 'Ik Kies Bewust'  was presented to the public. On the basis of criteria that define maximum levels of nutrients as fat, added sugar and salt, products are entitled to carry the Choices logo on the front of the package. Important to note is that this decision is based on the relative healthiness of a food. So, foods which are better in nutritional quality than other foods in the same category may get a Choices logo. The green logo does this for neccessary basic food groups such as vegetables, meals and dairy products and the blue one for the remaining food categories like snacks. These logos emphasize the positive nutritional aspects to consumers as no products are presented in a negative frame. Not all products joined the Choices initiative, which may explain why the Heinz ketchup does not have a logo and the Calvé mayonnaise has (see picture above).

Nutrition logos which also present the negative nutritional qualities of a food exist as well, the most well-known example is the British Traffic Light logo with its green, amber and red symbols. For example, a red traffic light shows that the food contains a high level of one of the  key ingredients fat, sugar, and salt and should be eaten occasionally. The more green traffic lights, the healthier the choice.

The British Traffic Light label (left) and the new Dutch Choices logo (right)

Proponents argue that front of pack labels are effective in helping consumers make healthier choices. Furthermore, Vyth and colleagues found that the Choices logo initiative has influenced food manufacturers to reformulate existing products and develop new products with a healthier product composition. There are opponents as well. For example, food politician Marion Nestle and nutrition expert David Ludwig are less positive about nutrition logos. 'Healthier foods are not necessarily healthy', they state in their paper in which they make a case for an outright ban for front-of-pack nutrition lables as they mislead consumers. Particularly integrative nutrition logos such as the Choices logos have been critized for creating a too simplifying contrast between good and bad foods. A recent study among 520 consumers by Andrews and colleagues showed that 'seal of approval' type logos as the Choices logo are perceived as more healthful than food with a traffic light logo or no logo. Other studies find that for some consumers the nutrition logos feel as an intrusion; an upleasant attempt to control their food behaviour. For example, the French consumer association sees a traffic light system as incompatible with the French food culture. For the French no red traffic light to spoil the pleasure of eating!

Gezondheidslogo's op eten

Considerable research exists on consumer comprehension of nutrition logos and nutrition profiling methodologies. Unfortunately, less is known about real use in practice and whether these logos actually lead to better diet quality and health. That is not easy to find out as there are many factors that influence consumers' food choices and nutrition labelling is just one of them. In 2009, Hans Dagevos and myself edited a book about nutrition logos: Gezondheidslogo's op eten.Verkenningen rond hun recente opmars. Yes, that is Dutch, so that is why we are working on a paper in which we consider the consumer friendliness of nutrition logos. Keep an eye on this blog; we will update you about our progress.

Taste beyond the basic senses: the role of expectations and cues in the environment ­

The Wikipedia page about taste discusses the basic senses like bitter, sweet and sourness and how these influence the sensation of food in the mouth. Fine with me, but don’t go entirely on the Wikipedia story, because you would miss out on many more fascinating aspects of taste. Taste is as much about the basic senses as it is about the expectations one has and whether or not these are confirmed. Expectations shape experiences. As this is true for almost all life events, it definitively plays a huge role in taste experiences.

To illustrate this, researchers Martin Yeomans and colleagues presented a group of consumers a smooth, non-sweet peach-coloured smoked-salmon ice-cream. Imagine how that looks like. Then they told about half of the group that it was ‘ice-cream’ and the other half were told it was a ‘frozen savoury mousse’. Not surprisingly, the first group rated their ice cream as disgusting and inedible. The ‘mousse’ group, however, found it quite okay and some even enjoyed it. This study shows that when there is a big ‘negative’ contrast between what you expect and what you actually get, disappointment follows.

This finding holds true as well for the promotion of food, as found in a recent study I conducted with Brian Wansink and Mitsuru Shimizu during my stay at the Food and Brand lab of Cornell University. In this study, we randomly assigned 68 college students to a supposed advertising study in which they had to watch a series of fast food and restaurant commercials or a series of commercials for products like car insurance and electronics. As the study happened to fall over lunch, participants got a free lunch as an incentive. Following commercials viewing, participants served themselves the meal and we secretly measured the amount of food they ate. The participants also filled out a questionnaire about how they rated and enjoyed the food. This is what we found: those who watched the food commercials felt hungrier but did not eat more than the other group. Watching food and restaurant commercials did, however, led to lower ratings of liking and enjoyment of the meal. Apparently, these participants were somewhat disillusioned of our ordinary pasta meal with the ‘I’m loving it’ song of the McDonalds ad still in their mind.

This clearly shows that we taste what we expect to taste. Usually, the difference between what we expect and what we get is not that extreme as in the examples above. For small differences, most consumers try to explain away these conflicting feelings or change their perception of the food they ate. In 1950s, Leon Festinger introduced the term ‘cognitive dissonance’ for this phenomenon. Basically, if we think that a food is going to taste good, we look for positive qualities that confirm that belief and justify our choice.

Noteworthy as well are the positive halo effects which refer to consumers’ tendency to think that when a food possesses one desirable feature, the food is automatically assumed to have more desirable features as well. A specific ingredient claim (‘80% less fat’) or a suggestive menu label (‘Grandmothers apple pie’) can provide strong cues that bias taste evaluation. In his book Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink vividly explains a variety of research findings of such biases. For example, consumers liked ‘Belgian Black Forest Double Chocolate Cake’ better than ‘Chocolate Cake’, even if they are the same, old cake. Another finding was that consumer evaluated brownies on China plates as excellent, while identical brownies presented on paper plates were good and the same ones handed out on napkins are only ok.



Do McDonalds fruit wall posters enhance the taste and health experience of a milkshake?

Consumers often think that ‘tasty’ equals ‘unhealthy’. Indicating foods as healthy reduces consumers’ taste expectations and taste experience. In other words, if we are really enjoying it, it must be bad for us. This is the persistent 'unhealthy=untasty' intuition that consumers use. So, promoting the healthiness of a food may ironically decrease its attractiveness in terms of taste. However, it does not mean that consumers will restrain from eating it. In contrast: several studies have shown that putting a healthy label on a food gives a ‘license to sin’. For example, labeling snacks as ‘low fat’ increases food intake during a single consumption occasion by up to 50%. Unluckily, in the study this was particularly the case for overweight people. This is because labeling food as ‘healthy’ or ‘low fat’ makes consumers underestimate the calories and gives them a reason to reward themselves by overeating or indulging in other foods. This effect is called a health halo and consumers are generally unaware that claims such as ‘healthy’, ‘natural’, and even ‘organic’ serve as a green light to go ahead and indulge.   

All things considered, taste expectations are strongly influenced by cues in our purchase and eating environment.

Food compensation: do exercise ads change food intake?

The answer to this question is: yes, they do! Our paper 'Food compensation: do exercise ads change food intake?', based on a Food and Brand lab study with Brian Wansink and Mitsuru Shimizu has been published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. More about the results of this study can be found at a previous blog post. Essentially, fitness commercial viewers ate fewer calories, enjoyed their meal more, and considered themselves to be more active and in shape than the people who watched the control commercials.

To take advantage of the results of our study, Amanda Sides suggests cutting inspiring fitness pictures out of magazines like Shape, Yoga Journal or Runner's world and hanging them at your kitchen cupboard. Another idea is to get a few shots of yourself during your group fitness workouts and make sure you see these pictures every day. This will help you keep on the healthy track. Funny idea, I think I am going to try it myself.

By the way, the paper is published in an open access journal, which means that full-text papers are free available online with no expensive subscriptions needed for interested readers. I like that! I hope you do as well.

My Top 5 of most illustrative Diet Blogs

It is time for New Year's resolutions and new diet and exercise plans for a slim body. Luckily, you are not alone in your painful efforts to lose weight. Many people around the globe are sharing their ups and downs with you. You can learn a lot of the psychology behind people's efforts to lose weight by reading diet blogs. After reading dozens of blogs, I can see some key issues coming back all the time. Therefore, here my Top 5 of the most illustrative diet blogs:

Number 5) The Diet Blogger who reports everything she is eating

Reporting what you eat gives insights in how much and when you eat and just the reporting itself makes you think twice before putting food in your mouth. Although it takes a lot of time, effort and commitment, a food diary can even double weight loss. Useful to make a good start, but I am wondering who is really interested in all your blog posts and tweets what you eat?

Number 4) The Diet Blogger who follows a different diet weekly
This is an interesting 'working experiment' of a woman who wants to share her experiences on a wide variety of diets, from the Cabbage Soup diet (that week must be long...) till the Subway diet and many more. Research has shown that more variety in the diet leads to more consumption, so this blogger is making her life much harder. On the other hand, she is one of the rare bloggers who keeps on blogging and losing weight. Apparently, she is having fun.

Number 3) The Diet Blogger who tries to motivate himself by being sponsored for charity

Jochem tries to lose 40 kilograms while supporting the Dutch Heart Association at the same time. This creates accountability and reporting your progress to an internet audience can have enormous motivating value, particularly when you are successful. But when the days and weeks come when you do not feel like eating right and exercising, it is hard to keep on being honest. After one or two blog posts with frustrations and disappointing results, most diet bloggers quit blogging.

Number 2) The Diet Blogger who knows that just expressing a good intention is satisfying

I guess that is the reason that someone started this twitter blog and left it by that action alone. Making the decision to do something good already gives a boost to your self-esteem. One study even found that increased fitness intentions are used as a direct defense against concerns about death. So, start a diet blog; a simple way to feel better instantly!

Number 1) The Diet Blogger who succeeds for about four weeks

I am afraid this is the most illustrative diet blog. John had very ambitious intentions and it seems that he failed to fulfill them. And that is what happens with most diet blogs: after a few weeks dieters stop blogging simply because they quit dieting. The motivation to keep on dieting typically falls after about four weeks. Two well-known experts in the field of diet psychology, Janet Polivy and Peter Herman, call this the 'False Hope Syndrome' which is characterized by unrealistic expectations about the likely speed, amount, and ease of losing weight, which lead to disappointment and failure.

So, watch out for unrealistic expectations, but remember: without hope and good intentions, it is never possible to lose weight. And maybe a diet blog helps you in achieving your goals.