Four essays on the impact of front-of-pack labels in consumer decision-making for healthier and more informed food choices

The soar of overweight and obesity, nearly tripling since 1975, is becoming one of the most pressing global issues for the health, with consequences on several noncommunicable diseases, and a relevant impact on direct and indirect costs of Public Health Systems. Therefore, governmental bodies and food industry players increased their willingness in helping consumers in making healthier and more informed food choices, activating several institutional corrective and preventive actions. An important policy measure has been the introduction of Front-of-Pack nutritional Labels (FOPLs), simplified nutrition information provided on the front of food packaging aiming to help consumers with their food choices. This research aims then at contributing to the current effort of understanding how different systems of FOPLs affect consumers’ decision-making processes toward healthier and more informed food choices, also as input for managers in the industry and for the ongoing policy-making discussions at the EU level. It integrates the existing knowledge by (a) analyzing some under-researched steps in food decision-making, such as consumers’ subjective understanding and the liking, and (b) proposing a new model for food-decision making, alternative to the current mainstream theoretical framework.