It’s no surprise that labels are becoming the “go to” place when people
have questions about how food is produced.
But new Cornell University
research finds that consumers crave more information, especially for the
potentially harmful ingredients that aren’t included in the product.
The laboratory study of 351 shoppers found consumers willing to pay a
premium when a product label says “free of” something, but only if the
package includes “negative” information on whatever the product is “free
of.”
For example, a food labeled “free of" a food dye will compel some
consumers to buy that product. But even more people will buy that
product if that same label also includes information about the risks of
ingesting such dyes.
“What did surprise us was the effect of supplementary information,”
said Harry M. Kaiser, a Cornell professor whose field of study includes
product labeling. “Even seemingly negative information was valued over
just the label itself.”
When provided more information about ingredients, consumers are more
confident about their decisions and value the product more, Kaiser said.
Published earlier this month as “Consumer Response to ‘Contains’ and
‘Free of’ Labeling” in the journal, Applied Economic Perspectives and
Policy, the Cornell study might interest CEOs of food-processing
companies, government policy makers and American consumers alike.
Other authors of the journal article were Jura Liaukonyte, Nadia A.
Streletskaya and Bradley J. Rickard, all of the Dyson School. The study
was supported by internal funds from Cornell’s College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences.
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