MARCON meeting Paris, 17/4/2015 Nutritional labelling and health warnings on wine: exploring regulatory options and consumers preference Annunziata A., Pomarici E., Vecchio R., Mariani A.

Research background In the EU and in other countries there is a strong debate on the need to introduce a nutritional label for alcoholic drinks and wine; Consumer and public health organizations (e.g. EUROCARE) have called for better labelling on alcoholic drinks and wine; Nutritional labelling together with health warnings are considered a tool that could promote more healthy and conscious drinking patterns in society.

In most countries alcohol content, ingredients list and indication of allergens and/or additives are mandatory (e.g. EU Regulation 579/2012 for allergens). Very limited nutritional information are required for example in the USA and in the Russian Federation (e.g. inclusion of sugar or carbohydrate content); Standard drinks per container is a requisite in some countries (e.g. Australia); Health warnings are mandatory in other countries (e.g. USA, Brazil). Source: International Center for Alcohol Policies Research background

Research objectives Explore consumers’ interest toward nutritional labelling and health warnings on wine labelling and evaluate consumers’ preferences to different ways to provide these information.

Material and methods On-line data collection (N=300 Italian wine consumers); The sample is representative of the national population in terms of gender and age distribution; Conjoint full profile and cluster analyses were applied to explore the degree of utility attached to different information on wine labels and verify the existence of distinct consumer segments.

Questionnaire structure A total of 32 questions were included in the survey, concerning: respondents’ use and familiarity with information provided on wine labels; awareness and knowledge of nutritional and health aspects of wine consumption; interest in nutritional information and health warnings on wine labels; socio-demographic characteristics. In the last section, respondents were presented with different product profiles with picture cards

Conjoint attributes and attributes level AttributesLevel Price€ 5 € 5.50 Nutritional information No Kcal per glass Panel with GDA% Health warning No Logo Logo with claim “Don’t drive …” Units recommended to not exceed regularly No Yes

The full conjoint analysis design produced 36 product profiles. Applying orthogonal design the complete choice stimuli generated 8 final products profile, to which we added two profiles as case control (holdout). A rating-based conjoint was applied, asking respondents to rank each card with a metric preference scale.

Results: Awareness and knowledge of nutritional and health aspect of wine consumption only 20% of respondents correctly selects the right option. About 43% is keen to underestimate wine glass caloric content. 17% of respondents believe that a glass of wine does not contain calories. 34% of respondents are aware that alcopops are the alcoholic beverage with the highest content of Kcal. 33% mistakenly indicates the mug of beer and about 10% indicates a glass of red wine.

Interest towards nutritional information and health warnings in wine label 55% believes it is particularly useful to receive more information on the nutritional and health features through the label. In particular respondents would like to find Kcal info and sugar content. 38% of cases respondents consider extremely useful the warning "do not drive after drinking“ 30% consider extremely useful "Avoid drinking alcohol when you are taking medicines“. 38% extremely useful30% extremely useful28% slightly useful

Results from conjoint analysis confirm the interest of respondents to nutritional information and health warnings on the label. AttributeAttribute level Mean part-worth utility Mean relative importance Price5€, ,5€ -,030 Nutritional information No -, Glass with Kcal,221 Panel % GDA -,065 Health warnings No -, Logo,010 Logo with claim,018 Indication of unit in the bottle and unit to not exceed No -, yes,301 Pearson R,975 Kendall Tau,857

Cluster analysis based on the pattern of individual utilities AttributeAttribute level Cluster 1 (25%) Cluster 2 (48%) Cluster 3 (27%) ANOVA p-value Price 5€ -,13,03, €,13-,03-, Mean relative importance 18%24%23% Nutritional information No -,09-,17-,20,200 Glass with Kcal -,15,22, Panel % GDA,24-,05-, Mean relative importance 32%25%28% Health warnings No -,13-,09-, Logo,03,06,02 Logo with claim,10,03, Mean relative importance 28%30%24% Indication of unit in the bottle and unit to not exceed No,70-,30-, Yes-,70,30, Mean relative importance 22% 21%25%

First cluster 25% of respondents - Higher level of utility to the nutritional information preferring the full version of the label. - Strong involvement with wine and that on average buy higher priced wine. - Strong interest in the nutritional label when buying food, stating in most cases to use labels to compare products while shopping and find it very useful to find more nutritional information also on wine labels -Higher knowledge of the nutritional properties of the wine and the links between wine and health than the other two clusters. -women belonging to the higher age cohort (55-65 and over 65), with a high incidence of individuals who have a medium-high level of education and which suffer of cardio-vascular problems. Cluster profile

Second cluster 48% of respondents - more value to the presence of a health warning preferring the version with a logo (30%), followed by nutritional information, preferring the picture card with the glass indicating the amount of Kcal (25%) - lower knowledge of the nutritional properties of wine and of the links between wine and health. -using nutrition labels only at the first purchase and have greater difficulties in the interpretation of these labels -highest concentration of individuals who claim low knowledge of the nutritional properties of wine. Cluster profile

Third cluster 27% of respondents - attach high relative importance to nutritional information - prefer the product with the glass indicating amount of Kcal -this cluster is characterized by attributing a greater level of utility to the indication of the amount of glasses not to exceed, compared to the previous two clusters. - they reveal an average interest towards nutrition labels and claim to have some difficulties in their interpretation. -This cluster is mainly composed of individuals aged between and over 65, with a lower level of education than the other two clusters. Cluster profile

Discussion Results confirm the central role of labelling in influencing consumers wine choices (Lockshin et al., 2009; Muller et al., 2010); Confirm strong interest expressed by consumers to the inclusion of nutritional and health information on the label (Thomson et al., 2012; Kypri et al., 2007; Wright et al. 2008); Prove that consumers are quite confused about the nutritional properties of wine.

Discussion Consumers could benefit from the provision of nutritional information on wine labels, mostly in the easy to understand form of a glass with Kcal. Preference to different ways to provide nutritional information tend to differ among the segments identified. Labelling alone would likely be of limited effect, or in some cases even counterproductive, in achieving health objectives unless combined with a comprehensive strategy of public education drinking (Martin-Moreno et al., 2013; Battaglene, 2014).

Limitation and future research Sample, even if representative in terms of age and gender, is numerically limited and does not exactly mimic Italian wine consumers. Data collecting mechanism (online) Extend the research replicating the survey (and conjoint design) in other important wine producing markets, as France, Spain and United States. Add a non hypothetical experiment.

Thank you!