Calorie labeling on low-calorie beverages for consumers' decision-making in health institutes’ coffee shops in Chiangmai province

Abstract

This survey research investigates personnel working in health institutes and general customers' decisions before and after the beverage calorie labels. The vendor collected the data after being trained in the data record by the researcher. The beverage choice data was from November to December 2020. Data analysis was conducted using logistic regression analysis. The 3,302 consumers' responses before and after the calorie label were 1,887 (57.2%) and 1,415 (42.8%), respectively. The personnel and general customers were 1,981 (60.0%) and 1,321 (40.0%), respectively. After the calorie labels, all consumers were more likely to choose the low-calorie beverages (lower than 150 kilocalories) 1.26 times (OR 1.26 [95% CI 1.05 to 1.51]; p<0.001). It was also discovered that general customers were less likely than personnel to choose low-calorie beverages 0.37 times (OR 0.63 [95% CI 0.52 to 0.76]; p<0.001), either before or after the calorie labels. Moreover, after the calorie labels, the general customers were less likely to choose the low-calorie beverage compared with the personnel 0.25 times (OR 0.75 [95%CI 0.56 to 0.99]; p=0.05). To conclude, the calorie labels have an influence on the consumer’s beverage decision, as after the calorie labels, consumers were more likely to choose the low-calorie beverage. However, general customers were less likely to choose low-calorie beverages compared with the personnel group. Therefore, the calorie label is an important media to encourage people to choose healthy products. However, more studies about effective media are required to gain more information to encourage consumers' healthy decisions.