HEALTHY PRODUCTS

The real impact of healthier products on consumption and calorie intake

Coordinatore	UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT    more  Organization address address: Minderbroedersberg 4-6 city: MAASTRICHT postcode: 6200 MD contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: M.G.M Cognome: Wetzels Email: send email Telefono: +31 43 3883250
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Netherlands [NL]
Totale costo	45˙000 €
EC contributo	45˙000 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG
Funding Scheme	MC-ERG
Anno di inizio	2011
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2011-06-01   -   2014-05-31

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT  Organization address address: Minderbroedersberg 4-6 city: MAASTRICHT postcode: 6200 MD contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: M.G.M Cognome: Wetzels Email: send email Telefono: +31 43 3883250	NL (MAASTRICHT)	coordinator	45˙000.00

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Several Western governments have declared obesity as one of today’s most urgent challenges. One of the remedies suggested to solve the obesity problem has been the development and stimulation of healthier products. Not surprisingly, companies have realized the opportunities, and healthier product versions have become big business. Apart from the low-fat varieties that are now present in almost every product category, also other functional health claims (e.g. extra vitamins) are frequently used. Common wisdom would suggest that the consumption of healthier product versions would indeed increase a consumer’s health. However, recent experimental research has shown that the effect of these healthier products may not be as straightforward as originally thought, to the extent that it may even lead to increased consumption and even calorie intake in certain circumstances. I propose to study health claims in a real-life setting, and examine their effect on actual category consumption quantity and calorie intake both in the short and long term. I use a unique dataset consisting of real purchase data in many product categories for a large household panel, combined with product information such as the type of health claims used and the nutritional information. The large amount of cases will not only allow to generate generalizable knowledge on the effect of health claims on real consumption behavior, it will also allow to study the potential moderating impact of the type of health claim (low-fat versus functional), as well as consumer and category characteristics.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A study examining the short- and long-term effects of consuming low-fat products has highlighted hidden assumptions.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Obesity is a problem facing many developed countries where governments consider it one of the most urgent challenges. As an answer, a surge of healthier products have arisen on the market. Although lower in fat and higher in nutritional value, consumption of these products does not necessarily have the expected effects. One reason for this is that their increased consumption can lead to more calorie intake.

'The real impact of healthier products on consumption and calorie intake' (HEALTHY PRODUCTS) is an EU-funded project that looked into the health claims of such products within a real-life setting and examined their short- and long-term effects. Consumption quantity and calorie intake play a role since people have a tendency to overgeneralise the healthiness of the product. In order to make the assessment, a dataset was collected that included the purchase history of a sample of 311 households as well as product information on the health claims found on packaging.

A range of diversity was found in terms of long-term impact of low-fat purchases. Potential differences between groups of households were also considered. Results showed that purchasing more low-fat products after the first year correlated with an increase in purchase volumes, reiterating the potential danger of low-fat products.

The results are useful for policymakers and civil society in gathering more insights into the effect of low-fat products in the fight against the obesity epidemic. It can also be beneficial for companies of health food products to make better claims on their packaging.