18 pages., via online journal, As food products marketed as “gluten-free” become increasingly popular, many consumers start to exclude sources of gluten (e.g., wheat, barley, and rye) from their diets for both medical and non-medical purposes. The grain industry is facing a growing challenge to (re)boost consumers’ confidence in the healthiness and safety of its commodities. Using 561 participants recruited from the Amazon Mechanical Turk workers’ panel, this study implemented a 2 (pretzels vs. potato chips) * 2 (positive- vs. negative- frame) * 2 (wheat image vs. no wheat image) experiment to examine the effects of gluten-free labels on consumers’ perceived healthiness and safety of wheat, perceived benefits of labeled products, and their evaluation of the shown labels. Results showed that consumers evaluate the gluten-free labels most positively when they appear on products that could have contained gluten. For products that are naturally gluten-free, adding a gluten-free label only decreased consumers’ confidence in such labels. The presence of gluten-free labels increased consumers’ perceived benefits of the labeled products when they do not contain any misleading information (e.g., image of a wheat head). However, some gluten-free labels could have negative impacts on consumers’ perceptions of the healthiness and safety of wheat. Overall, food producers and marketers might have undervalued consumers’ literacy and overestimated their susceptibility to marketing strategies. We discussed the implications for food marketers, regulators, and communicators.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 147 Document Number: C23503
Notes:
Bureau of Sociological Research, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, via http://poll.orspub.com/poll/ 7 pages., Responses in a Nebraska survey to questions inviting views about the definition of agriculture and the levels of public funds to be spent for agriculture.
McCarthy, M. (author), O'Reilly, S. (author), O'Donovan, P. (author), and Howlett, B. (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2004
Published:
Ireland
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C21764
Notes:
Pages 221-237 in George Baourakes (ed.), Marketing trends for organic food in the 21st Century. World Scientific Publishing Co., Pte. Ltd., Singapore. 338 pages.
Gay, Stephan Hubertus (author), Giray, Fatma Handan (author), Vlandas, Penelope (author), and Libeau-Dulos, Monique (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C29844
Notes:
Pages 89-104 in Adam Lindgreen, Martin K. Hingley and Joelle Vanhamme (eds.), The crisis of food brands: sustaining safe, innovative and competitive food supply. Gower Publishing Limited, Surrey, England. 352 pages.
USA: Commodity Economics Division, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D10783
Notes:
Report also available online via the Hathi Trust Digital Library. Claude W. Gifford Collection. Beyond his materials in the ACDC collection, the Claude W. Gifford Papers, 1919-2004, are deposited in the University of Illinois Archives. Serial Number 8/3/81. Locate finding aid at https://archives.library.illinois.edu/archon/, Agricultural Economic Report Number 660. 165 pages., Includes sections involving communications related to food marketing at various levels, food safety concerns, health consciousness, changing demand, and other topics.
