Flavours & fragrances Natural assumptions
Across the continent, a leading growth sector is organic food and drink too, with sales rising steadily year-on-year according to the Centre for the Promotion of Imports from developing countries (CBI) – established by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to its research, the main driver of sales is rising consumer awareness. It says European consumers want to avoid synthetic chemicals and pesticides in the food they eat, adding many are concerned about the environmental impact of conventional farming. This wish means the word natural is increasingly being sought out in packaging. However, Cimmarusti says consumers aren’t overly aware of what natural actually means – or doesn’t mean. A fact not addressed by the current lack of a legal framework. Consumers want to do the right thing, for their bodies and the environment, but they’re making decisions largely based on trust and conscience rather than education and understanding, claims a 2021 study of consumer purchasing intentions among an Italian cohort. The authors, from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and University of Naples Federico II, decried wanting regulatory framework. The group said they analysed the element driving the intention towards purchasing food with natural labels, gaining an understanding of what drives natural food intention in consumers. “The first insight we obtained is relative to the importance of conscious determinants. In addition, rational motives are intertangled with moral motives, due to the health and environmentally friendly ‘halo’ possessed by these products. A role is also played by trust, as happens for products characterised by credence attributes.” It concluded by calling for the development of an appropriate legal framework to regulate the use of natural as a food claim. It’s an assertion Cimmarusti concurs with. She says from SAFE’s research, it is clear what’s written on food packaging is heavily influencing consumers, with the word “natural” proving to be critical. She continues that there are brands using the word simply for that reason. “It’s so strong,” she says, “for consumers who are worried about climate change, worry about what’s happening to our environment. That word ‘nature’ – ‘Oh, my god it’s great, let me buy it’.”
Defining the indefinable
Research undertaken by SAFE and by academia is among a growing tranche of work conducted to see how consumers make purchasing decisions and to pressure for formal definitions. However, Cimmarusti and SAFE believe other options should be explored
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
too: “To have a definition is very complicated. In fact SAFE believes the best solution would be to write the list of ingredients and whether they come from synthesis or they’re natural. That is much easier than to have a definition.”
Groups like SAFE say the potential damage to human and environmental health caused by misleading claims on packaging has to be addressed. The so-called ‘health halo’ – a perception of good coming from claims on packaging, environmental, health or other – is driving consumer decisions, but potentially putting them at risk according to research. A 2019 UK-based study led researchers to call for stricter regulations on food labelling and product content. Looking at the impact that – what they said at the time was a relatively new trend – health claims made on some product packaging of foods marketed to children, shoppers were left confused and made decisions that could contribute to rising rates of childhood obesity.
“For consumers who are worried about climate change, worry about what’s happening to our environment. That word ‘nature’ – ‘Oh, my god it’s great, let me buy it’.”
Floriana Cimmarusti
In their work published in Archives of Disease in Childhood, they wrote: “Prepacked foods targeted to children can be consumed as part of a ‘balanced and healthy’ diet, yet their health and nutrition claims remain questionable… Stricter regulations on product composition, food labelling and marketing techniques are required to discourage the promotion of foods which might be considered obesogenic.” To be clear, the suggestion that health
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European consumers want to avoid synthetic chemicals and opt for ‘natural’ alternatives.
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