Files
Abstract
In the past few years, Europe has experienced an increase in several chronic diseases
linked to dietary and lifestyle factors. In particular obesity is increasing at an alarming
rate all over Europe, while warnings about it have intensified. As result nutritionrelated
measures are ranking as first in the agenda of the EU political priorities.
Particularly at the end of 2011 the EU introduced new rules on food labeling
requirement by inserting a nutritional declaration. In this context the proposed paper
aims to explore factors affecting use and understanding of nutrition information on food
labels in Italy to provide useful guidance in the implementation of new nutrition
labelling. The study presents some results of a direct survey on a sample of 400
consumers and provides a market segmentation identifying different profiles of
consumers, through the use of PCA and Cluster Analysis. The results obtained from this
analysis suggest the need to focus mainly on education campaigns and providing
several indications for developers and marketers as well as government bodies that are
interested in designing consumer communication strategies and effective health
programs.