Consumers’ Preferences towards Bread Characteristics Based on Food-Related Lifestyles: Insights from Slovenia

Consumers’ recognition and understanding of food characteristics can have an important role when making purchase decisions. The current study analysed consumer preferences for bread, an important food in the diets of Central European countries. The study included a conjoint experiment on a representative sample of 547 adult consumers in Slovenia. The following bread attributes: functional ingredients (chia seeds, linseed, quinoa, and Tartary buckwheat); nutritional claims (low salt, high fibre, and high protein); and other claims (organic, free from additives, flour from Slovenia, and wholegrain) were studied. The results showed the strongest relative importance for functional ingredients (a mean relative importance of 83.9%). In addition, a deeper insight into consumer preference was investigated by a recently developed modular instrument for food-related lifestyles. Latent class cluster analysis (LCA) enabled the identification of four consumer segments (uninvolved, conservative, health-conscious, and moderate) with different preferences toward selected functional ingredients, nutrition, and other claims. The results provide insights that allow for a better understanding of consumer preferences for functional ingredients and claims, and new perspectives for bread marketing to different consumer segments based on food-related lifestyles. Identifying the drivers that affect bread purchasing and consumption can support reformulation activities and product promotion in the direction of reinforcing healthier food choices.© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative CommonsAttribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

“Healthier” and “less healthy” classifications according to three nutrient profiling systems relative to nutrition and health claims on food labels

A comprehensive sample of breakfast cereals (a total of 221 breakfast cereals available in the market) were compared according to their nutritional composition, being analysed using three nutrient profiling systems to categorise foods as “healthier” or “less healthy”. Differences were further on investigated focusing on the use of nutrition and health claims on the labelling. The aim was to determine how much the use of such a claim corresponds to the categorisation into “healthier” or “less healthy” group. The sample contained 161 (72.9%) items with claims and 60 (27.1%) items, without claims. The nutrient profiles of the foods were determined by the UK Ofcom model, the FSANZ model and the modified Traffic Light model. All the models use similar but nevertheless different ways of determining the final score of “healthier” or “less healthy”. The percentage of foods classified as “healthier” was well below 72.9% (from 24.8% to 52.2%), indicating that profiling with each model involves stricter criteria for the classifying of foods compared to the permission to carry a nutrition and/or health claim. The difference is the most pronounced for the modified Traffic Light system, while the UK Ofcom and FSANZ systems give results closer to the use of claims

“Healthier” and “less healthy” classifications according to three nutrient profiling systems relative to nutrition and health claims on food labels

A comprehensive sample of breakfast cereals (a total of 221 breakfast cereals available in the market) were compared according to their nutritional composition, being analysed using three nutrient profiling systems to categorise foods as “healthier” or “less healthy”. Differences were further on investigated focusing on the use of nutrition and health claims on the labelling. The aim was to determine how much the use of such a claim corresponds to the categorisation into “healthier” or “less healthy” group. The sample contained 161 (72.9%) items with claims and 60 (27.1%) items, without claims. The nutrient profiles of the foods were determined by the UK Ofcom model, the FSANZ model and the modified Traffic Light model. All the models use similar but nevertheless different ways of determining the final score of “healthier” or “less healthy”. The percentage of foods classified as “healthier” was well below 72.9% (from 24.8% to 52.2%), indicating that profiling with each model involves stricter criteria for the classifying of foods compared to the permission to carry a nutrition and/or health claim. The difference is the most pronounced for the modified Traffic Light system, while the UK Ofcom and FSANZ systems give results closer to the use of claims

Prevalence of Nutrition and Health-Related Claims on Pre-Packaged Foods: A Five-Country Study in Europe

This study is part of the research undertaken in the EU funded project CLYMBOL (“Role of health-related CLaims and sYMBOLs in consumer behaviour”). The first phase of this project consisted of mapping the prevalence of symbolic and non-symbolic nutrition and health-related claims (NHC) on foods and non-alcoholic beverages in five European countries. Pre-packaged foods and drinks were sampled based on a standardized sampling protocol, using store lists or a store floor plan. Data collection took place across five countries, in three types of stores. A total of 2034 foods and drinks were sampled and packaging information was analyzed. At least one claim was identified for 26% (95% CI (24.0%–27.9%)) of all foods and drinks sampled. Six percent of these claims were symbolic. The majority of the claims were nutrition claims (64%), followed by health claims (29%) and health-related ingredient claims (6%). The most common health claims were nutrient and other function claims (47% of all claims), followed by disease risk reduction claims (5%). Eight percent of the health claims were children’s development and health claims but these were only observed on less than 1% (0.4%–1.1%) of the foods. The category of foods for specific dietary use had the highest proportion of NHC (70% of foods carried a claim). The prevalence of symbolic and non-symbolic NHC varies across European countries and between different food categories. This study provides baseline data for policy makers and the food industry to monitor and evaluate the use of claims on food packaging

Understanding the impact of legislation on 'reduction of disease risk' claims on food and drinks: The REDICLAIM project

The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (EC No. 1924/2006) has established a common framework for the regulation of nutrition and health claims used on foods across the European Union. This regulation aims to provide the European food industry opportunities for product innovation whilst protecting consumer interests with respect to controlling misleading advertising and promoting public health. However, in order to satisfy the approval of new health claims procedure particularly for new 'reduction of disease risk' claims [Article 14(1)(a) claims], significant research activity is required by industry to scientifically substantiate the claims they wish to make. There is a need to establish whether the implementation of this legislation is in fact driving product innovation and the development of healthy foods or whether it forms a barrier to such developments. The EU-funded REDICLAIM project is currently considering these issues. This article describes the project's preliminary results and outlines the further programme of work

A comparison of the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages from 12 countries using the Health Star Rating nutrient profiling system, 2013-2018

We compared the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages between selected countries using the Health Star Rating (HSR) nutrient profiling system. Packaged food and beverage data collected 2013-2018 were obtained for Australia, Canada, Chile, China, India, Hong Kong, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia, South Africa, the UK, and USA. Each product was assigned to a food or beverage category and mean HSR was calculated overall by category and by country. Median energy density (kJ/100 g), saturated fat (g/100 g), total sugars (g/100 g) and sodium (mg/100 g) contents were calculated. Countries were ranked by mean HSR and median nutrient levels. Mean HSR for all products (n = 394,815) was 2.73 (SD 1.38) out of 5.0 (healthiest profile). The UK, USA, Australia and Canada ranked highest for overall nutrient profile (HSR 2.74-2.83) and India, Hong Kong, China and Chile ranked lowest (HSR 2.27-2.44). Countries with higher overall HSR generally ranked better with respect to nutrient levels. India ranked consistently in the least healthy third for all measures. There is considerable variability in the healthiness of packaged foods and beverages in different countries. The finding that packaged foods and beverages are less healthy in middle-income countries such as China and India suggests that nutrient profiling is an important tool to enable policymakers and industry actors to reformulate products available in the marketplace to reduce the risk of obesity and NCDs among populations

Modular construction of fluoroarenes from a new difluorinated building block via cross-coupling/electrocyclisation/ dehydrofluorination reactions

Palladium-catalysed coupling reactions based on a novel and easy-to-synthesise difluorinated organotrifluoroborate were used to assemble precursors to 6π-electrocyclisations of three different types. Electrocyclisations took place at temperatures between 90 and 240 oC, depending on the central component of the π-system; non-aromatic trienes were most reactive, but even systems which required the temporary dearomatisation of two arenyl sub-units underwent electrocyclisation, albeit at elevated temperatures. Photochemical conditions were effective for these more demanding reactions. The package of methods delivered a structurally-diverse set of fluorinated arenes, spanning a 20 kcal mol-1 range of reactivity, by a flexible route