Evaluating Consumer Usage of Nutritional Labeling: The Influence of Socio-Economic Characteristics

are found in the results of existing studies. For instance, Nayga documented statistical
differences suggesting label usage differs among national regions. Virtually no label
usage research has centered solely on any part of the northeast region, one of the
most important consumer markets in the nation. Because of its high population density,
its working consumers are among the highest paid in the nation, and for its high
number of food manufacturers, New Jersey was an ideal focus for this analysis.
Moreover, many existing studies have used old data which may not accurately
represent the current behavioral and attitudinal characteristics of the population or
public response to the NLEA.

The purpose of this study was to empirically evaluate which socio-economic
characteristics encourage consumers to use nutritional labels when making grocery
purchases. A logistic framework is used to quantify the effects of several demographic
factors on label usage.

Methods

There are no widely accepted theoretical or empirical guidelines for evaluating the
impact of socio-demographic factors in the likelihood of nutritional label usage (Nayga,
1996). However, Guthrie et al. (1995) and Nayga (1996) approached the information
provided by nutritional labels as a commodity which consumers will continue to make
use of as long as the benefits surpass the costs of label usage. This methodology,
initially proposed by Stigler (1961), specifically models the consumer’s search for
information which itself has been shown to be influenced by individual characteristics

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