Front-of-pack nutrition labelling: using novel methods to explore consumer decision making at point of choice during routine supermarket shopping
Providing health information, such as front-of-pack nutrition information, is a potentially useful way to help people choose healthier foods. Although a large, and growing, evidence base exists around consumer use and understanding of nutrition labelling, much remains to be understood, particularly in a real-life context. This study will use qualitative research methods to explore how shoppers use the front-of-pack nutrition information panel as a point-of-choice prompt during supermarket shopping.
One of the problems with real-life studies is the difficulty collecting data without interfering with usual behaviour. The study will use novel, passive methods of image capture (Autographer, a wearable digital camera and Tobii eye-tracking glasses) to explore whether such methods offer additional benefits compared with a traditional 'think aloud' method in informing our understanding of the use of front-of-pack nutrition information by shoppers during supermarket shopping.
The study is funded as part of a larger award (the FLICC Study) to the British Heart Foundation Centre on Population Approaches for Non-Communicable Disease Prevention through the National Preventative Research Initiative (MR/J000256/1). Gill is supervised by Professor Ray Fitzpatrick (NDPH) and Associate Professor Louise Locock (Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences).