英国硕士课程作业：Food labelling - a clear healthier message

1.0 Introduction引言

英国已经是欧洲肥胖人口最多的国家之一。肥胖带来了许多社会问题，如人们身体健康下降、预期寿命缩短以及大量政府财政资源的消耗（Bosley，2014年）。英国政府正试图以多种方式解决肥胖问题，其中利用社交媒体帮助消费者更好地了解食品标签上提供的营养信息是一种有效的方法。本文首先介绍了英国食品现状、英国消费者肥胖现状以及英国食品标签存在的问题。然后从消费者行为理论、市场细分、信息传递、消费者教育等方面探讨如何利用社会媒体帮助消费者了解食品标签上提供的营养信息。

Britain is already one of the countries with the most obese people in Europe. Obesity has brought many social problems, such as a decline in people's physical health, shortened life expectancy, and consumption of a large amount of government financial resources (Boseley, 2014). The UK government is trying to tackle obesity in a variety of ways, of which using social media to help consumers to better understand the nutritional information provided on food labels is an effective way. This essay first of all introduces the current situation of food in U.K., the current obesity status of British consumer, as well as the existing problems in British food labeling. Then the author is from the perspectives of consumer behavior theory, market segmentation, information transmission, consumer education to discuss how to use social media to help consumers to understand the nutritional information provided on food labels.

2.0 Body主体

2.1 British food英国食品

英国是欧洲肥胖人口最多的国家之一，这与英国食物有关，英国人最喜欢的食物是鱼和薯条，两者都是油炸的，英国早餐包括派、土豆泥、零食、比萨饼等。英国人最喜欢的食物含有高热量。此外，英国的食物摄入量也更大（Young、Russell、Robinson和Barkemeyer，2016年）。因此，为了解决英国的肥胖问题，食品标签上的食品卡路里信息和营养信息对于帮助消费者改变饮食行为，减少英国肥胖社会具有重要意义。

Britain is one of the countries with the largest number of fat people in Europe, which is related to British food, British favorite food are fish and fries, both are fried, English breakfast includes pie, mashed potatoes, snacks, pizza, etc. British favorite food contains high calorie. Moreover, British food intake is also larger (Young, Russell, Robinson and Barkemeyer, 2016). Therefore, to solve the problem of obesity in Britain, food labels on food calorie information and nutritional information is important to help consumers to change dietary behavior to reduce the British society for obesity.

2.2 The state of health of British people

British national obesity rate ranks second in Europe, it is second only to Hungary. 67% of women and 57% of men are obese in U.K., and if the government is unable to take effective measures, these figures are expected to increase by 40% each by 2025 (Boseley, 2014). Obesity-related diseases have encroached on scarce NHS resources and cost £ 6 billion a year. Most of the problems come from eating too much, forcing the government to pressure the food and beverage manufacturers to help people to eat less and eat healthily (Cameron, 2011).

2.3 Current problems existing in food labeling 

When consumers buy food in a supermarket, they often encounter such a contradiction, on the one hand, they want to choose a healthier food, on the other hand, they do not have enough time to stop to make a choice, then they can only make a hasty choice. To this end, consumers need a new label to help consumers to make a better and faster choice. In addition, food labeling sometimes misleads consumers, such as "anti-oxidation", "whole wheat", "high fiber", these specifically amplified, promotional slogan on food packaging probably makes consumers feel that they have bought healthy food. The British Daily Telegraph has warned that these seemingly healthy food labeling may fool consumers, this is often a marketing tactic of manufacturers’, these phrases are impressive and easily misleading for consumers, so that they will ignore those unhealthy ingredients (Cameron, 2011). For example, a cherry flavored beverage named 7-up is popular with consumers because it is labeled "anti-oxidant" on the packaging, but there is no evidence that the addition of antioxidants will reduce the risk of hyperglycemia and obesity problems caused by the carbonated beverage. Such words will allow consumers to see only some of the health benefits of the beverage, and forget the most threatening element: a large number of sugar (Campbel, 2012).

2.4 Social media

2.4.1 Consumer behavior theory

According to consumer behavior theory, consumer preferences for product depends largely on whether products can meet consumer demand, thus it is necessary for manufacturers to be based on consumer demand to carry out product development and survive. In terms of food labeling, label can provide consumers with clearly defined messages that meet consumer needs and can have a significant impact on consumer behavior (Young, Russell, Robinson and Barkemeyer, 2016). First of all, it should allow consumers to understand what nutritional content that a product has to determine whether the product meets their own needs, and then will have the behavior to buy or not to buy. Then, consumers should not only know the nutritional content of products, but also the amount of nutrients, and according to their own needs to choose the food that they need most. Label information tells consumers what nutrients they should eat less, and what amount of nutrients is too large, then consumers can avoid eating those unhealthy foods, and choose healthy food. Finally, when the negative effects of the nutrients contained in food are unavoidable, consumers need to know how to reduce these adverse effects. If the food labeling can tell consumers how to consume the energy contained in food, consumers can follow the instructions to take physical exercise measures to reduce the risk of obesity caused by food.

2.4.2 Advise consumers of each market segment on finding right foods 

Each person's physical condition is different, which leads to their different nutritional needs are, so consumers need to understand the amount of nutrients contained in food, according to their needs to choose the most suitable for them. To address this problem, the British Food Authority requests that in addition to, general nutrition table, food labeling also promote a "traffic light" of three-color food label to consumers, supermarkets and food producers use the “traffic lights” of the three colors in food labeling to help consumers to make right choice.

People can easily use social media to comment, feed back and share information, leading to that the speed and breadth of information dissemination is greatly enhanced. Thus a video on the identification of the “traffic light” can be created on the home page to attract consumers to click, evaluate and share, so that in a short time, the most consumers will understand the connotation of the “traffic light” labels, and how to use the “traffic lights” labels to choose the most appropriate food for them (Killian and McManus, 2015).

Foods with a "traffic light" food label often prominently display on the front of the package to consumers about three levels of high, medium and low fat, saturated fats, sugar and salt in the food they want to buy, so as to help consumers to buy more healthy, nutritionally balanced food within the shortest possible time. In addition to making use of the red, yellow and green colors to identify the content of various components, consumers can also find the specific content values of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt through a "traffic light" label (Campbel, 2012). The red sign means that this food contains ingredients that are detrimental to good health. It is best to control the frequency of consumption, or strictly control intaking amount. The yellow sign means that some ingredient in food is neither high nor low, and most of the time it is acceptable to choose this type of food. The green sign means that the content of a certain ingredient in food is very low, and foods with more green marks are more healthy. In this way, in choosing between food of same types, people should try to choose food labeled with more green and yellow logo (Campbel, 2012).

2.4.3 Provide targeting information to consumers

Adverse effects brought by nutrients contained in food are unavoidable, so consumers need to know how to reduce these negative effects. Currently, people do not generally understand labels on food packaging, in addition to heat information, food labeling should also tell people how much exercise they need to consume the calories consumed. A poll conducted showed that half of people were confused about current food labeling. Young, Russell, Robinson and Barkemeyer (2016) pointed out that in addition to a variety of nutritional indicators in existing food packaging, new label food labeling should tell consumers with a vivid image to show how long they should run and walk to consume calories contained in the food. This will make it easier for consumers to understand the calorie intake and encourage them to exercise to cope with the growing problem of obesity in the UK. More than two-thirds of British are overweight or obese. It is needed to use a new program for all people to change their habits. The goal is to raise people’s awareness of energy intake and encourage more exercise. Calorie tag that is equivalent to sports is more acceptable to people. Printing this label onto package of food and beverages can help to create a positive lifestyle, a healthy lifestyle Cameron (2011).#p#分页标题#e#

The group feature of Facebook allows members of a group to speak out, communicate and share photos freely (Zhu and Chen, 2015). Using this feature, those who are interested in weight loss can be organized in a group to encourage members of the group to show their food labels of food they eat, as well as to show their own physical activity, those who have been engaged in enough physical activity will be praised by other group members, who take less exercise will be criticized, which will not only help consumers to understand the content of food labels, but also help to use food labels to encourage consumers to change their way of life.

2.4.4 Education

Food labels contain relatively large and professional information, some food labels are not standardized, some labels are wrong, some of the contents are missing, in the face of these problems, consumers without certain professional knowledge may not be able to identify. Simply  updating articles in social media is unable to give consumers a deep impression to bring consumers knowledge about food labels. Questionnaire is a good way to improve consumers’ knowledge in this area. Firstly, questionnaire allows many people to participate without increasing burden for the organizer, which is feasible. Secondly, questionnaire is often enclosed with answers, when a questionnaire survey is over, consumers can compare their answers with the correct answers, finding reasons for their mistakes to acquire knowledge. Finally, consumers obtaining high scores, will be given an interesting virtual title, consumers can share through their own account in social media to get a prize (Zhu and Chen, 2015).  

There is a relatively professional and large amount of information contained in food labeling, consumers without relevant professional knowledge generally do not know much about it, therefore, Polldaddy function of Facebook can be used to educate consumers. Polldaddy is a tool for creating questionnaires. There are 14 forms of questionnaires, including multiple-choice questions, quiz questions, Likert scales, and the questionnaire results can be analyzed. This is a way to increase fans’ engagement (Tiago and Veríssimo, 2014; Zhu and Chen, 2015; ). By answering the questionnaires, consumers are better informed about food labels to choose healthy food. Food labels should contain lists of all ingredients, the shortest shelf-life of food, and the best use date. For foods that are very susceptible to deterioration, the end-of-life date should be labeled. Food labels should label about specific storage conditions and conditions of use; names, addresses and registered office locations of manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors; information of origin of food, how to use food properly.

3.0 Conclusion

UK is already one of the countries with most obese people in Europe. Obesity has brought many social problems. At the same time, the problems of some nonstandard food labels, wrong food labels, some food labels with missing and misleading content, as well as problems associated with food labeling are very unfavorable to solve British obesity. The use of social media to help consumers to better understand the nutritional information provided on food labels will be an effective way to solve the problem. Specific methods include: first, through the comment, feedback and information sharing function of social media to allow the most consumers to understand the content of food labels, and how to use food labels to choose the most suitable food for them in a short time. Second, it is through the use of the grouping function of social media to popularize the knowledge relating to food labels, and to encourage group members to exercise more to change their lifestyles. Finally, using Polldaddy feature of Fackbook allows consumers to understand the relevant knowledge of food labels, so that consumers will have the ability to identify food labels to choose healthy food.

 

References

Boseley, S. (2014). UK among worst in western Europe for level of overweight and obese people.

Cameron, D. (2011). How much does obesity cost the NHS?

Campbel, D. (2012). All supermarkets to adopt 'traffic-light labeling' for nutrition. 

Killian, G. and McManus, K. (2015). A marketing communications approach for the digital era: Managerial guidelines for social media integration. Business Horizons, 58, (5), 539-549.

Tiago, M. T. P. M. B. and Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother? Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Young, W., Russell, S. V., Robinson, C. A. and Barkemeyer, R. (2016). Can social media be a tool for reducing consumers’ food waste? A behaviour change experiment by a UKretailer. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 11(2), 405-411.

Zhu, Y. Q. and Chen, H. G. (2015). Social media and human need satisfaction: Implications for social media marketing. Business Horizons, 58(3), 335-345.