Products with detailed nutritional information are picked more from the shelves than the so-called light items, according to a study.
Experts from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the Centre for Agro-Food Research and Technology of Aragón (CITA) worked on the research examining the nutritional labelling of breakfast biscuits.
Researcher María Loureiro, from the Rudiments of Economic Analysis Department of the Faculty of Economic and Business Sciences of the USC, explained to SINC: "We made 1,600 observations; we included multiple choice questions so that people could choose a product for its attributes."
The expert found: "The label component is very important when selecting a product, although the brand name is even more so. The light denomination is also significant but less so than the labelling".
The study concluded: "According to our studies, we allow ourselves to be guided by nutritional information. That is why we must consider the need to place more emphasis on the information that we give of a nutritional nature and the strategies that certain brands may implement to give the appearance of higher quality."
The research was published this year in Food Quality and Preference.