Factors affecting use and understanding of nutrition information on food labels: evidences from customers

In the past few years, Europe has experienced an increase in several chronic diseases linked to dietary and lifestyle factors. In particular obesity is increasing at an alarming rate all over Europe, while warnings about it have intensified. As result nutritionrelated measures are ranking as first in the agenda of the EU political priorities. Particularly at the end of 2011 the EU introduced new rules on food labeling requirement by inserting a nutritional declaration. In this context the proposed paper aims to explore factors affecting use and understanding of nutrition information on food labels in Italy to provide useful guidance in the implementation of new nutrition labelling. The study presents some results of a direct survey on a sample of 400 consumers and provides a market segmentation identifying different profiles of consumers, through the use of PCA and Cluster Analysis. The results obtained from this analysis suggest the need to focus mainly on education campaigns and providing several indications for developers and marketers as well as government bodies that are interested in designing consumer communication strategies and effective health programs.