Do people need guidance to estimate a food portion size? Evidence from an exploratory eye-tracker study

IF 4.9 1区农林科学 Q1 FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Food Quality and Preference Pub Date : 2024-06-24 DOI:10.1016/j.foodqual.2024.105250

Vladimir Maksimenko , David Labbe , Alison L. Eldridge , Tsz Ning Mak , Jinghai Huo , Prateek Bansal , John C. Thoresen

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Abstract

A promising strategy to encourage portion control involves clear guidance and portion information on product packaging alongside nutrition details. However, literature on the impact of this information on serving sizes is conflicting. To gather more objective evidence about how consumers interact with on-pack portion guidance, we conducted a laboratory-based eye-tracker study with 66 participants completing two portion-size estimation tasks. In the first, participants estimated serving sizes indirectly by gauging how many people a product pack could serve. The second task involved direct portion size selection using pictorial representations of the food portion on a virtual plate. Additionally, we explored how participants’ familiarity with products affected their portion estimations. Results: when portion guidance was presented, errors in portion estimation significantly decreased only in the indirect task, where 85% of participants showed an improved accuracy. This suggests that the way individuals are prompted to estimate portion sizes influences their approach and their reliance on the provided guidance. Higher error rates occurred when participants were more familiar with the products. For less familiar products, the lower portion estimation errors were associated with the longer fixations on the portion graphic in the indirect task. In addition, participants who quickly noticed the portion graphic provided more accurate portion size estimates. This emphasizes the practical importance of swiftly locating portion information on-pack to enhance estimation accuracy.

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人们在估算食物份量时需要指导吗？一项探索性眼动仪研究提供的证据

鼓励控制食物份量的一个可行策略是在产品包装上提供明确的指导和份量信息以及营养细节。然而，有关这些信息对食用分量影响的文献并不一致。为了收集更多关于消费者如何与包装上的份量指导互动的客观证据，我们进行了一项基于实验室的眼动追踪研究，66 名参与者完成了两项份量估算任务。在第一项任务中，参与者通过估算一包产品可以供多少人食用来间接估算份量。第二项任务是利用虚拟盘子中食物份量的图形表示，直接选择份量大小。此外，我们还探讨了参与者对产品的熟悉程度如何影响他们的份量估计。结果发现：当提供份量指导时，只有在间接任务中，份量估算的错误率才会明显下降，85% 的参与者的估算准确率都有所提高。这表明，提示个人估算份量的方式会影响他们的方法和对所提供指导的依赖性。参与者对产品越熟悉，错误率越高。对于不太熟悉的产品，较低的份量估计错误率与间接任务中对份量图形的固定时间较长有关。此外，迅速注意到份量图形的参与者能提供更准确的份量估计。这强调了迅速找到包装上的份量信息以提高估计准确性的实际重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Food Quality and Preference 工程技术-食品科技

CiteScore

10.40

自引率

15.10%

发文量

263

审稿时长

38 days

期刊介绍： Food Quality and Preference is a journal devoted to sensory, consumer and behavioural research in food and non-food products. It publishes original research, critical reviews, and short communications in sensory and consumer science, and sensometrics. In addition, the journal publishes special invited issues on important timely topics and from relevant conferences. These are aimed at bridging the gap between research and application, bringing together authors and readers in consumer and market research, sensory science, sensometrics and sensory evaluation, nutrition and food choice, as well as food research, product development and sensory quality assurance. Submissions to Food Quality and Preference are limited to papers that include some form of human measurement; papers that are limited to physical/chemical measures or the routine application of sensory, consumer or econometric analysis will not be considered unless they specifically make a novel scientific contribution in line with the journal''s coverage as outlined below.