Colour correct: the interactive effects of food label nutrition colouring schemes and food category healthiness on health perceptions

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of food label nutrition colouring schemes in interaction with food category healthiness on consumers' perceptions of food healthiness. Three streams of colour theory (colour attention, colour association and colour approach-avoidance) in interaction with heuristic processing theory provide consonant predictions and explanations for the underlying psychological processes.

Design: A 2 (food category healthiness: healthy v. unhealthy)×3 (food label nutrient colouring schemes: healthy=green, unhealthy=red (HGUR) v. healthy=red, unhealthy=green (HRUG) v. no colour (control)) between-subjects design was used.

Setting: The research setting was a randomised-controlled experiment using varying formats of food packages and nutritional information colouring.

Subjects: Respondents (n 196) sourced from a national consumer panel, USA.

Results: The findings suggest that, for healthy foods, the nutritional colouring schemes reduced perceived healthiness, irrespective of which nutrients were coloured red or green (healthinesscontrol=4·86; healthinessHGUR=4·10; healthinessHRUG=3·70). In contrast, for unhealthy foods, there was no significant difference in perceptions of food healthiness when comparing different colouring schemes against the control.

Conclusions: The results make an important qualification to the common belief that colour coding can enhance the correct interpretation of nutrition information and suggest that this incentive may not necessarily support healthier food choices in all situations.

Keywords: Colour theory; Food labelling; Food marketing; Heuristic processing; Nutritional information.

Fig. 1

Stimulus materials for the six conditions for the 2 (food category healthiness: healthy v. unhealthy) × 3 (food label nutrient colouring schemes: healthy=green, unhealthy=red (HGUR) v. healthy=red, unhealthy=green (HRUG) v. no colour) between-subjects design

Fig. 2

Means plot for the significant interaction between food label nutrient colouring schemes (HGUR, healthy=green, unhealthy=red; HRUG, healthy=red, unhealthy=green) and food category healthiness (, healthy; , unhealthy) on perceptions of food healthiness among 196 respondents above the age of 18 years (males, n 82; females, n 114) sourced from a national consumer panel, USA