Understanding the Impacts of Front-of-pack Labels on Consumer Product Evaluation and Purchase Decisions: A Systematic Review

In this paper, we review studies on the influence of front-of-pack labels (FoPLS) on consumer product evaluation and purchasing decisions across countries and in different formats. We first introduce the definition and five different types of FoPLs and categorize them into reductive, hybrid, and evaluative groups. By conducting a review on the general impacts of labeling on consumer purchasing, we find that multiple aspects of consumers perceptions can be affected by FoPLs. Since several studies revealed that position and format of labeling make a difference in catching consumers’ attention, we then review and analyze the existing literature on various categories of FoPLs. The findings on the effectiveness of various presentations of nutritional information have been contradictory and inconsistent. Nutri-score is found to be more effective in enhancing understanding of product healthiness in some studies while multiple traffic light labels are more illuminating in other papers. In general, we conclude that evaluative and hybrid types of labels are more effective and favored by consumers than the reductive type. This paper offers a comprehensive review on existing literature and propose several potential areas for future research in this field.