Consumers' Reactions to Converting Percentage Daily Energy Intake into Equivalent Walking Time: Results from Qualitative and Quantitative Measures

In the battle against obesity, front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition food labels are touted as an important measure to empower people to consume less of such foods. However, the best way to display energy content remains a contentious issue. The voluntary industry standard in Australia is to display kilojoule content per average serving plus the recommended percentage daily intake of energy (PDI) this represents for an average adult (a 70 kg. male). The literature to date suggests that consumers find this information difficult to interpret. We sought to test the acceptance and usefulness of converting energy information into equivalent walking time (EWT) for the average adult. We conducted eight focus groups with Australian adults, followed by an online experiment with n=998 participants who viewed images of 30 foodstuffs labelled with EWT, plus a range of other labels such as PDI and multiple traffic lights (MTL) systems. Participants were asked to make assumptions about the healthiness of each foodstuff based upon each nutrition label. In focus groups, participants confirmed general confusion about PDI labels because of lack of interpretability. In comparison, EWT was popular due to instant comprehension. In the online experiment, participants were significantly less concerned about unhealthy foods labelled with PDI compared to EWT or MTL. Respondents found EWT far more comprehensible and useful than the PDI for discriminating between EDNP foods, even though both essentially contained the same nutrition information. To better empower consumers in their food choices, serious consideration should be given to translating energy content information into EWT.