Ingredient-Based vs Nutrition-Based Claims: Implications for Consumer Health Perceptions and Responsible Food Choices

Growing consumer sensitivity toward individual well-being has fostered more conscious consumption practices and increased attention to health-oriented food products. Within this context, packaging serves as a key communication tool through which firms can highlight health-related attributes that are not directly observable, particularly through the use of nutritional claims. This paper investigates how different types of packaging claims – ingredient-based versus nutrition-property-based claims – influence consumers’ desire to consume a product, examining the mediating role of perceived healthiness and expected taste, two potentially conflicting variables in food evaluation. The study aims to shed light on the cognitive mechanisms through which health-related communication shapes consumer evaluations and perceptions. A between-subjects experiment was conducted (N=300), randomly assigning participants to one of two claim conditions (ingredient-based vs. nutrition-based). Data were analyzed using multiple regression analyses and a parallel mediation model. Results show that nutrition-property-based claim significantly increases perceived healthiness, which fully mediates its effect on desire to eat the product. Expected taste strongly predicts desire to consume but does not mediate the effect of the type of claim. From a managerial perspective, the findings suggest that emphasizing nutritional properties can enhance perceive healthiness, but such communication should be balanced with elements that preserve taste expectations. Combining nutritional claims with sensory cues may therefore improve packaging effectiveness. The originality of the study lies in examining the impact of health-related claims on a hedonic variable such as desire to consume, while distinguishing between ingredient-based and nutrition-property-based claims.