2024-Giovanni Pino

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Investigating the nature and effectiveness of ‘clean’ labels

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Prof Giovanni Pino (PI), University of Chieti-Pescara (IT), Dr Jason Sit (Co-I), University of Portsmouth (UK); and Dr Shynar Dyussembayeva (Co-I), University of Portsmouth - Investigating the nature and effectiveness of ‘clean’ labels

Grant ref: 2024-419-BAM-SIMA

Award amount: £4,000

Project summary: The past few decades have witnessed a proliferation of sustainability labels, among which the so-called ‘clean’ labels identify a variety of products: naturally processed products, products with reduced quantities of potentially harmful ingredients (e.g., sugar, sodium, fat, artificial additives), products devoid of such ingredients, products with simpler, chemically recognizable and originally traceable ingredients, etc.

Attributes such as ‘pesticide free’, ‘No GMOs’, and ‘locally sourced’ are hallmarks of clean labels. Due to their diversified nature, such labels likely differ in their ability to elicit perceptions of safety, healthfulness, and/or naturalness, to influence consumer confidence, and to facilitate sales. However, the inherent features of these labels, their effects on consumers, and their economic potential are still unclear.

In order to advance the current scientific and managerial understanding of clean labels’ potentialities, this project aims to:
a) identify meta-categories of clean labels based on their main topic (hereafter ’theme’) and their lexical construction (hereafter ‘framing’);
b) assess the economic performance of the different categories in terms of sales;
c) identify the key drivers of the labels’ performance and possible country-related differences through experimental studies with UK and Italian consumers.