Title: "Hey Pal, Have an Eye on the Expiration Dates Before You Waste Food!" - Assessing the Teenagers' Motivation and Ability to Judge Foodstuffs after Expiration Dates Via Eye-Tracking
Abstract:The European Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers defines two distinct types of expiration dates. Previous research revealed that consumers usually do not pay attenti...The European Regulation 1169/2011 on the provision of food information to consumers defines two distinct types of expiration dates. Previous research revealed that consumers usually do not pay attention to expiration dates, nor do they understand the difference between them, leading to around 10% of food waste in the European Union. The Regulation is currently being revised to propose a new expiration date format. The present study contributes to the public and academic debates, by assessing teenagers' motivation and ability to judge foodstuffs after expiration dates in post-purchase decisions via eye-tracking. Eye-movement parameters revealed that subjects paid greater attention towards foodstuffs with expiration dates falling on the hypothetical day of the study and those foodstuffs, whose expiration date has already passed when provided with new pieces of information (on the differences between the expiration dates as well as the environmental and economic consequences of food waste). Environmental information provoked a deeper processing of the presented information than economic information. However, the mouse-click behaviour showed that over 5% of teenagers chose foodstuffs past the use-by date and 30% of teenagers would not choose foodstuffs labelled with the past best-before date, even after being informed that it is safe to eat them. Finally, the motivation, opportunity and ability framework for processing information on expiration dates indicates that the new format of expiration date labels will increase an opportunity to elaborate upon the expiration dates, but its success lies in the high motivation and high ability of consumers to process this information.Read More
Publication Year: 2023
Publication Date: 2023-01-01
Language: en
Type: preprint
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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