ANOTHER LOOK AT THE IMPACT OF REFERENCE INFORMATION ON CONSUMER IMPRESSIONS OF NUTRITION INFORMATION

The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) of 1990 requires the p rovision of daily value reference information on food labels to improv e consumer judgments of product nutritiousness. Yet, a review of the l iterature reveals little research indicating that daily values (DVs) h ave such a facilitative effect. In light of this, the authors empirica lly examine how DVs fare against an alternative reference point in the form of average-brand values. Their results demonstrate that these tw o reference points differ in terms of their impact on consumers' inter pretation of nutritional information. In particular; they find that av erage-brand reference points better facilitate consumer discernment be tween healthy and less healthy products than either the DVs currently mandated by the NLEA or no reference information at all. Their finding s also reveal the potential for DVs to cause consumers to form incorre ct conclusions about a product's nutritiousness. The authors draw impl ications regarding the provision of reference information on product l abels as a means of attaining public policy objectives.