MARCON meetingParis, 17/4/2015

Nutritional labelling and health warnings on wine: exploring regulatory options and

consumers preference

Annunziata A., Pomarici E., Vecchio R., Mariani A.

Research background

In the EU and in other countries there is a strong debate on the need to introduce a nutritional label for alcoholic drinks and wine;

Consumer and public health organizations (e.g. EUROCARE) have called for better labelling on alcoholic drinks and wine;

Nutritional labelling together with health warnings are considered a tool that could promote more healthy and conscious drinking patterns in society.

In most countries alcohol content, ingredients list and indication of allergens and/or additives are mandatory (e.g. EU Regulation 579/2012 for allergens).

Very limited nutritional information are required for example in the USA and in the Russian Federation (e.g. inclusion of sugar or carbohydrate content);

Standard drinks per container is a requisite in some countries (e.g. Australia);

Health warnings are mandatory in other countries (e.g. USA, Brazil).

Source: International Center for Alcohol Policies

Research background

Research objectives

Explore consumers’ interest toward nutritional labelling and health warnings on wine labelling and evaluate consumers’ preferences to different ways to

provide these information.

Material and methods

On-line data collection (N=300 Italian wine consumers);

The sample is representative of the national population in terms of gender and age distribution;

Conjoint full profile and cluster analyses were applied to explore the degree of utility attached to different information on wine labels and verify the existence of distinct consumer segments.

Questionnaire structure

A total of 32 questions were included in the survey, concerning:

respondents’ use and familiarity with information provided on wine labels;

awareness and knowledge of nutritional and health aspects of wine consumption;

interest in nutritional information and health warnings on wine labels;

socio-demographic characteristics.

In the last section, respondents were presented with different product profiles with picture cards

Conjoint attributes and attributes level

Attributes Level

Price € 5

€ 5.50

Nutritionalinformation

No

Kcal per glass

Panel with GDA%

Health warning

No

Logo

Logo with claim “Don’t drive …”

Units recommended to not exceed regularly

No

Yes

The full conjoint analysis design produced 36 product profiles. Applyingorthogonal design the complete choice stimuli generated 8 final products

profile,to which we added two profiles as case control (holdout).

A rating-based conjoint was applied, asking respondents to rank each card with a metric preference scale.

Results: Awareness and knowledge of nutritional and health aspect of wine

consumption

none17%

<65 Kcal18%

Between 65 and 85 25%

Between 85 and 105 20%

Between 105 and 125 8%

> 125 12%

How many Kcal are contained in a glass of red wine (125 ml) on

average?

   1 glass of red wine (125 ml)10%

   1 mug of beer (330 ml)

33%

   1 glass of grappa (40 ml)23%

   1 alcopop, Bac-ardi etc .. (200 ml)

34%

Which of the following alcoholic drinks contain more calories?

only 20% of respondents correctly selects the right

option.About 43% is keen to

underestimate wine glass caloric content.

17% of respondents believe that a glass of wine does not

contain calories.

34% of respondents are aware that alcopops are the alcoholic

beverage with the highest content of Kcal.

33% mistakenly indicates the mug of beer and about 10%

indicates a glass of red wine.

Interest towards nutritional information and health warnings in wine label

55% believes it is particularly useful to receive more information on the nutritional and health features through the label.

In particular respondents would like to find Kcal info and sugar content.

38% of cases respondents consider extremely useful the warning "do not drive after drinking“

30% consider extremely useful "Avoid drinking alcohol when you are taking medicines“ .

38% extremely useful 30% extremely useful 28% slightly useful

Results from conjoint analysis confirm the interest of respondents to nutritional information and health warnings on the label.

Attribute Attribute level Mean part-worthutility

Mean relativeimportance

Price 5€ ,03023

5,5€ -,030

Nutritional informationNo -,156

27Glass with Kcal ,221

Panel % GDA -,065

Health warnings

No -,02830

Logo ,010

Logo with claim ,018

Indication of unit in the bottle and unit to not

exceed

No -,30120

yes ,301

Pearson R ,975

Kendall Tau ,857

Cluster analysis based on the pattern of individual utilities

Attribute Attribute level Cluster 1

(25%)

Cluster 2

(48%)

Cluster 3

(27%)

ANOVA p-value

Price

5€ -,13 ,03 ,19 .000

5.5€ ,13 -,03 -,19 .000

Mean relative importance

18% 24% 23%

Nutritional information

No -,09 -,17 -,20 ,200

Glass with Kcal -,15 ,22 ,72 .002

Panel % GDA ,24 -,05 -,52 .000

Mean relative importance

32% 25% 28%

Health warnings

No -,13 -,09 -,07 .000

Logo ,03 ,06 ,02

Logo with claim ,10 ,03 ,05 .000

Mean relative importance

28% 30% 24%

Indication of unit in the bottle and unit to not exceed

No ,70 -,30 -,09 .000

Yes -,70 ,30 ,09 .004

Mean relative importance

22% 21% 25%

First cluster 25% of respondents - Higher level of utility to the nutritional information preferring

the full version of the label.- Strong involvement with wine and that on average buy higher

priced wine.- Strong interest in the nutritional label when buying food,

stating in most cases to use labels to compare products while shopping and find it very useful to find more nutritional information also on wine labels

- Higher knowledge of the nutritional properties of the wine and the links between wine and health than the other two clusters.

- women belonging to the higher age cohort (55-65 and over 65), with a high incidence of individuals who have a medium-high level of education and which suffer of cardio-vascular problems.

Cluster profile

Second cluster 48% of respondents- more value to the presence of a health warning

preferring the version with a logo (30%), followed by nutritional information, preferring the picture card with the glass indicating the amount of Kcal (25%)

- lower knowledge of the nutritional properties of wine and of the links between wine and health.

- using nutrition labels only at the first purchase and have greater difficulties in the interpretation of these labels

- highest concentration of individuals who claim low knowledge of the nutritional properties of wine.

Cluster profile

Third cluster 27% of respondents

- attach high relative importance to nutritional information- prefer the product with the glass indicating amount of Kcal- this cluster is characterized by attributing a greater level of

utility to the indication of the amount of glasses not to exceed, compared to the previous two clusters.

- they reveal an average interest towards nutrition labels and claim to have some difficulties in their interpretation.

- This cluster is mainly composed of individuals aged between 45-54 and over 65, with a lower level of education than the other two clusters.

Cluster profile

Discussion

Results confirm the central role of labelling in influencing consumers wine choices (Lockshin et al., 2009; Muller et al., 2010);

Confirm strong interest expressed by consumers to the inclusion of nutritional and health information on the label (Thomson et al., 2012; Kypri et al., 2007; Wright et al. 2008);

Prove that consumers are quite confused about the nutritional properties of wine.

Discussion

Consumers could benefit from the provision of nutritional information on wine labels, mostly in the easy to understand form of a glass with Kcal.

Preference to different ways to provide nutritional information tend to differ among the segments identified.

Labelling alone would likely be of limited effect, or in some cases even counterproductive, in achieving health objectives unless combined with a comprehensive strategy of public education drinking (Martin-Moreno et al., 2013; Battaglene, 2014).

Limitation and future research

Sample, even if representative in terms of age and gender, is numerically limited and does not exactly mimic Italian wine consumers.

Data collecting mechanism (online)

Extend the research replicating the survey (and conjoint design) in other important  wine producing markets, as France, Spain and United States.

 Add a non hypothetical experiment.

Thank you!