Effects of presentation of ingredient information with clean labels on older adults’ food product evaluation

Clean labels are an emerging topic that has received considerable attention from consumers and manufacturers in recent years; however, limited academic research has been conducted on this topic. Moreover, the effect of clean labels on consumers’ food choices remains unclear, and empirical evidence is required to further elucidate this effect. Therefore, this research examined the underlying mechanisms and factors related to the relationship between clean labels and older adults’ food product evaluations. In this research, three experiments were conducted and 315 older adults were recruited. The results of the first experiment indicate that older adults are more inclined to select food products with clean labels than those without clean labels. This is because they are motivated to process information relevant to their health and clean labels indicate that a food product is additive-free and its ingredients are natural. The results of the second and third experiments indicate that health knowledge and self-rated health status have moderating effects on the relationship between clean labels and older adults’ food product choices. The findings of this research have crucial theoretical and practical implications.