Health claims

July 2006 to January 2009

Jessica Aschemann

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hamm

DFG-Research project

further information : www.dfg.de/gepris/

Good health is becoming an increasingly important topic in the food business. On the one side consumers are feeling a greater responsibility towards their own health. On the other side legislation and consumer protection organisations are trying to provide more information on nutrition in order to positively influence people's health. For these reasons, currently in the EU as in other countries,  provisions are being made by law to regulate claims concerning health on food products. There has however no research been carried out as yet whether and how consumers in Germany are being influenced by these so called 'health claims' in their quest for information and their purchasing decisions.

To clarify this point, consumers will be put into a close-to-reality choice experiment and observed by video taking into consideration their behaviour in their quest for information. Test persons will be interviewed and asked as to their judgement of the information provided on the food products. With the aid of psycho and socio-demographic data, research will be carried out on underlying reasons for their behaviour. Special interest will be taken as to whether the theoretical construct of involvement can explain their purchasing behaviour  regarding products with health claims.