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Drichoutis, Lazaridis and Nayga / Consumers’ Use of Nutritional Labels

CONSUMERS’ USE OF NUTRITIONAL LABELS:
A REVIEW OF RESEARCH STUDIES AND ISSUES
Andreas C. Drichoutis
Agricultural University of Athens
Panagiotis Lazaridis
Agricultural University of Athens
Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr.
Texas A&M University
Andreas C. Drichoutis is a PhD candidate at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development in
Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece, telephone [phone], [e-mail]. Panagiotis Lazaridis is an Associate Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and
Rural Development in Agricultural University of Athens, Iera Odos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece, telephone +30 210
5294720, [e-mail]. Rodolfo M. Nayga, Jr. is a Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics in
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-2124, USA, [e-mail]. The authors are grateful to the
Editor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable and constructive comments and suggestions.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Introduction
Diet-related health problems have increased dramatically over the last few years. Consequently, nutritional labeling has emerged as an important aspect of consumers’ food purchase decisions. Nutritional content in food products is considered to be a credence attribute. However, if trustworthy nutritional labels are available, nutritional labels could function as a search characteristic. The regulatory environment in some countries (e.g. USA, Australia etc.) has long recognized the potential of standardized on-pack nutrition information and has mandated the presence of nutritional labels on all processed food products.
Others, like the EU, are contemplating similar mandatory nutritional labeling regulations. The nutritional labeling literature has grown significantly in recent years. Our paper reviews this increasingly important literature and addresses some specific issues

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