The role of food labels in baby food purchasing behaviour

Abstract

Owing to the ever-increasing demand for a health-conscious lifestyle, consumers are becoming more conscious of product selection, including food selection. It is also increased by various food allergies and intolerances. Consumers require ingredients from reliable sources and relevant information content of food labels. Information, such as guideline daily amounts, product and allergenic ingredients, average nutritional value, manufacturer, expiration date, influences one’s purchase decisions. When starting to feed babies with the first food option, it is especially important to know what the product contains. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the information content on the labels of jarred baby foods available from different manufacturers in Hungary, based on a questionnaire survey and a focus group interview, and to determine whether there is a regional difference between the purchase behaviour of mothers and the purchasing tendencies. The fields of economics, marketing and consumer protection law are combined in this study because the topic of consumer rights relates to all three disciplines