Alegações e alertas nutricionais e seus efeitos na avaliação dos alimentos pelo consumidor

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effect of nutritional claims and warnings present on food packages in the perceived healthfulness of food. The project was divided into two stages: the identification of claims used in different categories of products sold in Brazilian on-line supermarket and the evaluation of the effect of nutritional claims and warnings on the healthfulness perception, in four product categories. For the first stage, data were collected in a supermarket online store. Products from the following categories were considered: dairy products (yogurt, milk drink and chocolate milk); beverages (juice, iced tea, powdered preparation, vegetable milk); bread (industrialized breads); cereals (breakfast cereals, cereal bars, granolas), meat products (hamburguers, nuggets, sausages, chicken parts) and crackers. The results showed that 76% of the 883 products analyzed contained at least one claim. The most frequent types of claims were related to: the presence of fruit pieces, pulp or juice (10%); the absence or reduced amount of sugar (9%); the absence or reduced quantity of total, saturated or trans-fat (8%); the presence of grains, seeds and/or nuts (9%); the absence of conservatives (7%); the presence of vitamins (7%); and the presence of fibers (6%). Some of the products containing large amount of claims were analyzed for the presence of nutrients related to obesity and non-communicable chronic diseases and all of them had an unfavorable nutritional profile according to PAHO criteria, i.e., high content of these nutrients. Results suggest that additional regulation of claims should be implemented, in order to avoid misleading consumers. The second step of the study aimed to evaluate the effect of nutritional claims and warnings on the healthfulness perception of the product categories: yogurt, juice, bread and cracker. For each category, eight packages were designed following a full-factorial experimental design with three two-level factors: two types of claims (present vs. absent) and nutritional warnings highlighting high content of saturated fat, sugar and/or sodium (present vs. absent). A total of 820 adults participated in an online survey. For each package, participants were asked to rate their perceived healthfulness using a 7-point scales (1: not healthy at all; 7: very healthy). The participants also answered a questionnaire on General Interest in Health. Results showed that although claims had a significant and positive effect on the perceived healthfulness of all categories, nutritional warnings had the largest relative importance and significantly decreased perceived healthfulness. Participants who were more willing to compromise pleasure for health tended to give more relative importance to the warnings. Results suggest that nutritional warning could facilitate the identification of products with unfavorable nutrient profile and can contribute to reduce the positive healthful associations generated by claims.