Designing a packaging to promote healthy and low-fat foods: Adolescents versus young-adults

•A food packaging is very important in the communication strategy of private of public entities.•For communicating low fat foods, visual cues work better than informative cues.•For communication healthy foods, visual cues work better than informative cues.•For low-fats products the adolescent market should be prioritized.•Regarding healthy products, the young-adult market should be prioritized.

Packaging is a relevant tool when adolescents and young adults search for low-fat and healthy foods. However, the power of a packaging is not homogenous. In this framework, two main objectives guide our work: (i) to investigate to what extent visual cues (size, colors, images etc.) are more important than informational cues (label); (ii) to analyze if adolescents and young adults pay equal attention to both packaging cues. 590 adolescents between 12 and 18 years of age were interviewed at the door of both public and private schools. Additionally, 300 young adults between 19 and 25 years of age were contacted. Their opinions were analyzed twice using structural modelling techniques: (i) without considering age differences and (ii) splitting the sample into adolescents (590 participants) and young-adults (300 participants) to compare their perceptions.Our results have showed that when looking for healthy and low-fat aliments visual cues (size, colors, images etc.) are more important than informational cues (label design, easily understandable words, size of the letters). Additionally, age is a pertinent variable to explain alternative packaging strategies, because adolescents and young adults do not pay equal attention to both packaging cues.

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