Background: It is common for consumers to purchase ultra-processed foods that are perceived to have health risks, and this phenomenon is rarely explained in the existing literature from the perspective of consumers' responses to the intuitive marketing of flavor labels and the packaging.
Methods: This study aimed to fill this knowledge gap and investigated the attention of 920 participants aged 18~59 across China toward fat and sodium content information for six ultra-processed foods (pastry foods, quick-frozen foods, dessert foods, puffed foods, beverages, and sauces) presented in nutrition facts tables based on the theoretical analysis framework for purchasing decisions on ultra-processed foods by using the binary logit model.
Results: It was found that the respondent' s attention to fat and sodium content information was positively influenced by health risk perception levels and levels of knowledge about fat and sodium but negatively influenced by the interaction term between flavor labels (or the packaging) that stimulated the purchase desire and health risk perception levels (or levels of knowledge about fat and sodium).
Conclusions: The stimulation of purchase desire by flavor labels and the packaging weakened the consumer' s increased attention to fat and sodium content information being enhanced by the health risk perception level and the level of knowledge about fat and sodium, especially the probability of attention to such information for dessert foods, puffed foods, quick-frozen foods, and sauces, which dropped the most. Additionally, the attention of females, youth, low-income individuals, those with below-college education, and non-overweight and obese individuals to such information dropped more, and the decrease was the largest for dessert foods, puffed foods, quick-frozen foods, and sauces.
Keywords: fat; flavor labels; packaging; sodium; ultra-processed foods.