Protein on display: a comprehensive analysis of front-of-package labels and consumer perceptions
Creators: name: McKeon, Gina Pope
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2024

description: Consumers are searching for food products that will improve their health and are convenient and tasty. To meet this demand, the popularity and sales of protein foods are growing, along with consumer perceptions that they will lead to greater satiety, energy, and weight loss. Marketers have responded by increasingly placing declarations of protein on the front-of-package of food products. These declarations communicate salient product attributes to consumers yet may also lead to misinterpretations of the overall nutritional composition of these products, which may not be substantially better than similar products without protein claims. Many contain added sugars, sodium, and fats to make them more palatable. Since many American consumers choose foods based on their protein content, it is important to determine which types of products most frequently contain protein claims, as well as the types of protein claims that are being presented. Additionally, examining how consumers perceive these protein-labeled products in the context of health will shed light on their implications for individual health and societal rates of obesity. Few academic studies that examine protein labels beyond the traditional snack bar format exist in the literature. Thus, our research aims to fill the knowledge gap surrounding an important and timely topic. The objectives of this research were to characterize the types of products that make protein claims, identify how these protein claims are displayed, and determine how these protein-labeled products compare nutritionally to other similar products without protein claims. Drawing on the results of this analysis, two online surveys addressed the objective of evaluating how consumer perceive these protein-labeled products in the context of healthfulness and purchase intentions, as well as examining how protein claims affect attention to other nutrition information on the package.Products with front-of-package claims of protein were analyzed using Label Insight, an online product database of label information and product images for over 330,000 foods. Product categories with the greatest proportion of products with protein claims were determined to be Dairy, Frozen Food, and Cereal &amp; Breakfast Foods. These categories are comprised of 15.33%, 14.32%, and 13.83% of products with protein claims, respectively. Overwhelmingly, protein amount declarations (e.g., “10g of protein per serving”) were the most frequently made front-of-package protein claims across all products. Most products made only one front-of-package protein claim, but also contained at least one other claim, such as “Organic” or “No preservatives” in addition to the protein claim. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to determine whether there were differences in the nutrient content per 100g between three product types (yogurt, cereal, and frozen entrees) with and without protein claims. Yogurt, cereals, and frozen entrees were chosen for this analysis due to their consumer popularity and proportion of protein claim products relative to non-protein claim products within each category of Dairy, Frozen Food, and Cereal &amp; Breakfast Foods. Yogurts with protein claims had statistically significantly more protein, and less calories, sodium, and sugar compared to yogurts without protein claims. Cereals had significantly more protein and fat, and less sodium and sugar compared to cereals without protein claims. Nutrients in frozen entrees with protein claims did not significantly differ from frozen entrees without protein claims. To determine if consumers perceived these differences in protein-labeled products, two online surveys were conducted. The first, consisting of 1,022 participants, presented images of the front packaging of two familiar American cereals (Special K Original and Special K Protein) and asked comparative questions about product healthfulness, health benefits, and nutrients. Participants perceived Special K Protein as healthier, more nutritious, though less tasty than Special K Original. Special K Protein was perceived as providing greater health benefits, such as being more likely to help build muscle, stay healthy, and live longer. Many participants perceived no differences in the amounts of certain nutrients between the cereals, such as sugar (54.5%), sodium (59.2%), and calories (49.1%). Yet, when serving sizes are equalized to one cup, Special K protein has more sugar, sodium, and calories than Special K Original. Though most participants reported viewing the Facts Up Front label that was also present on the package displaying the serving size amounts, only 21.3% correctly chose Special K Original as having the larger serving size. The second consumer survey randomly assigned 1,195 participants to experimental conditions to test perceptions of differing types of front-of-package protein labeling schemes on cereal and yogurt products: “Good Source of Protein,” “Excellent Source of Protein,” “protein” in the product name, amount declaration (e.g., “12g protein”), or no protein claim with less healthy and healthy Nutrition Facts Labels (NFL). Though the overall perceived healthfulness of products with protein labels did not appear to be greater compared to control cereals, there were some more nuanced differences between label types for other perceptions that were studied, indicating the presence of a health halo. Protein-named cereals were perceived as more likely to have the benefit of promoting healthier digestive systems, and as having more protein and more Vitamin D than control cereals. Participants who viewed cereals with the word protein in their names also viewed the corresponding NFL the longest compared to all other conditions. Previous research on products using “protein” in the name was only conducted on snack bars and did not examine attention to NFL for these products. The present study, as well as the prior Special K study, furthers this research by establishing that the phenomenon of health halos surrounding protein-titled foods extends beyond protein bars, but may not be universal. It is present in cereals, but not in yogurts.