Each year, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) recognizes the authors of high impact publications at the annual UF/IFAS Research Awards Ceremony. These publications must be highly relevant, and we are pleased to announce that this year, postdoctoral research associate Jianhui Liu and FRE faculty members John Lai, Bachir Kassas, and Di Fang were recognized for their work in understanding how the FDA’s new “healthy” food label would influence consumers’ purchasing decisions.
To see how people would react to the healthy label, as well as other front of package labels, Liu and his team designed front-of-package labels for strawberry Greek yogurt. They then asked study participants to indicate how much they were willing to pay for products labeled “healthy”, ‘tasty” or with no descriptors at all.
“This study required a considerable amount of planning and coordination, from the experimental design and recruitment to the preparation of product packages and data collection,” said Jianhui Liu, lead researcher on the study. “For example, we even used Cricut cutting machines to develop prototypes and prepare the product packages for the consumer experiment, which brought an element of creativity and realism to the project that we were excited to include!”
A study with this level of complexity required an immense amount of collaboration, which Liu said makes it much more meaningful to see the group’s efforts recognized.
“This was truly a team effort, and I am thankful for my wonderful collaborators, Drs. Kassas, Lai, and Fang. I also appreciate the support from UF HealthStreet during the experiment,” Liu said. “I am glad to see the effort recognized, and I sincerely appreciate Dr. House’s nomination and support.”
For this particular award, publications are judged not just upon their academic rigor or contributions to the discipline, but on broader, real-world impacts.
At the same time Liu and his colleagues were designing their study, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was deliberating on the regulation of new front of package labels. It was precisely the potential for impact on a wide-ranging audience which drew Liu’s interest to the project, which would become the topic of his Ph.D. dissertation.
“This type of policy can influence diverse stakeholders, including policymaking entities, millions of food and beverage businesses, and consumers like you and me,” Liu said.
Research findings suggested that the “healthy” labels actually had the opposite of their intended effect. When presented with the “healthy” label, consumers decreased willingness to pay for yogurt except for when the claim was supported by FDA backing and an explanation about the agency’s criteria for the designation.
To Liu, these findings highlight the importance of complimentary educational efforts to support intended policy outcomes for empowering healthy eating choices.
“The study has business, policy, and nutrition implications, which makes it broadly relevant and timely,” Liu said.
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