Shopper’s eye movements have been used by Derby University researchers to assess the value of nutritional information on food packaging. A set of labels was presented to volunteers on a computer screen and then a tracking device monitored their eye movements as they read through the information. The test, developed by psychology lecturers Dr Gary Jones and Miles Richardson, was designed to see what grabbed people’s attention.
All other imagery and graphics were removed from the packaging except for the nutritional details. “This was done deliberately”, says Dr Jones, “as we didn’t want to give them any contextual information that might alter their opinion. They were asked to give each label a ‘healthiness rating’ from one to 10 as a way of assessing what people perceive as healthy,” he continues. “People seem to make a judgement based on the fat alone.
“We also looked at the traffic light system that the government is thinking of bringing in and it would appear that this makes absolutely no difference to the way people judge food.”
Instead, volunteers seemed to base their healthiness rating on just four factors: the energy level, fibre, fat and saturated fat levels.
However, according to Dr Jones, the eye spends just as long looking at all the information on the label as it does looking at these four factors. “I think this shows there is too much information. There are nine nutrients displayed, so this means there are 18 numbers on one label. This is a lot of information to take in and the traffic light system will just add to this.
Sodium avoided
“Interestingly, the study found that people look at the sodium content less than anything else,” he says. “This may be because current labels have sodium near the bottom of the nutrition list and therefore could be one of the last things that shoppers see. But it also might be because some people don’t know what sodium is.
“Labels need to be designed so that the most important information is what draws the shopper’s attention first.”
Ninety-two participants of varying ages took part in the study carried out last month. The results will be sent to the Derby Centre for Psychological Research in Human Behaviour and will be published within the next few months. For further information about Food Labelling, visit www.etiquette.co.uk - the UK’s experts in labels & labelling.
