Health claims that manufacturers make on food packaging might not match a product’s nutritional benefits, but people still make buying decisions based on these claims, researchers reveal.

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The nutritional facts and ingredients that appear on a product’s packaging aim to reveal what consumers want to know about a food.

A consumer might choose to look at a product’s calorie, fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamin, or mineral content.

Those factors, as well as the potential presence of allergens and other ingredients, all work together to reveal a product’s content.

However, many manufacturers print claims that can steer consumers in one direction or the other.

People often make buying decisions based on these perceptions and, interestingly, such claims do not always correspond with a product’s actual nutritional status.

This fact led to four studies, which the researchers combined into a single paper and published in the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. They examined the claims printed on the front of food packaging and assessed the differences between these claims and the products’ nutritional content.

They also looked into how consumers reacted to these claims when it was time to make a buying decision. The wanted to determine whether the claims were accurate and whether they affected purchasing choices, regardless of their accuracy.

The authors hailed from institutions including INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, the Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.