INCREASING THE CONSPICUITY OF FOOD CONTENTS WARNINGS

摘要

The increased prevalence of Anaphylaxis, or acute allergic reaction, has put an emphasis on food labelling. This experiment examined factors influencing the optimal positioning of content warnings. Nineteen participants indicated whether a target ingredient was present on a food label. There were three variables: the position of a target (before the first ingredient, after the last ingredient or below the ingredients), the font style (boldormal) and the letter case (upper/lower). Response times indicated significant main effects of position, with the warning before main ingredients giving the fastest responses. Additionally, advantages were found for the use of bold and of upper case letters. The results suggest that an optimal format for an ingredient warning would be to place it before the ingredient list and in a different style of text to that of the main list.