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The Importance of Taste for Food Demand and the Experienced Taste Effect of Healthy Labels - An experiment on potato chips and bread

Thunström, Linda and Nordström, Jonas LU (2012)
Abstract
This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand, as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average WTP for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 20 euro cents. The effect from taste on bread demand seems smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence suggests that a better nutritional content, as indicated by a healthy label, may also positively... (More)
This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand, as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average WTP for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 20 euro cents. The effect from taste on bread demand seems smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence suggests that a better nutritional content, as indicated by a healthy label, may also positively affect food demand, but the effect is small and not statistically significant. Finally, we find that consumers’ experienced taste of a food is unaffected by the food carrying a healthy label. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Healthy labeled food, non-intrinsic value, taste, Vickrey second price auction
pages
17 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9c9374e6-c5df-4274-b992-ec316a3c4a53 (old id 3359160)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 12:56:06
date last changed
2021-03-30 10:48:01
@misc{9c9374e6-c5df-4274-b992-ec316a3c4a53,
  abstract     = {{This paper quantitatively analyzes the importance of taste versus health in food demand, as well as the effect on consumers’ experienced taste of the non-intrinsic value of healthy labels. Our analysis is based on taste experiments and Vickrey second price auctions on potato chips and bread. Our findings imply a large positive effect on demand for potato chips from higher taste scores: when consumers’ experienced taste from potato chips improves by one unit, the average WTP for a 150 gram bag of chips increases by 20 euro cents. The effect from taste on bread demand seems smaller, but may be sizeable for subgroups of consumers. Our evidence suggests that a better nutritional content, as indicated by a healthy label, may also positively affect food demand, but the effect is small and not statistically significant. Finally, we find that consumers’ experienced taste of a food is unaffected by the food carrying a healthy label.}},
  author       = {{Thunström, Linda and Nordström, Jonas}},
  keywords     = {{Healthy labeled food; non-intrinsic value; taste; Vickrey second price auction}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  title        = {{The Importance of Taste for Food Demand and the Experienced Taste Effect of Healthy Labels - An experiment on potato chips and bread}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/6023120/3359165.pdf}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}