Effectiveness of Three Front-of-Pack Food Labels in Guiding Consumer Identification of Nutrients of Concern and Purchase Intentions in Kenya: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Front-of-pack-labels (FOPLs) on packaged foods provide essential information to help consumers make informed dietary choices. However, evidence on their effectiveness, particularly in low- and middle-income countries like Kenya, is limited. Objective: This study assessed the effectiveness of three FOPLs in helping consumers identify nutrients of concern in packaged food products and influencing their purchase intention in Kenya. Methods: A total of 2198 shoppers from supermarkets in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and Garissa were randomized into three groups: Red and Green Octagon label (RG), Red and Green Octagon with icons (RGI), and Black Octagon Warning label (WL). In the control phase, participants were shown unlabeled images of packaged foods, followed by questions. In the experimental phase, the same images were presented with one assigned FOPL, and participants responded again to the same set of questions. Differences in correct identification of nutrients of concern and changes in purchase intention were analyzed using frequency tables and Chi-Square tests, while modified Poisson regression assessed FOPL effectiveness. Results: FOPLs significantly improved correct nutrient identification and reduced the intention to purchase unhealthy foods, with the WL proving most effective. Conclusions: These findings highlight the potential of FOPLs, particularly the WL, as an effective regulatory tool for promoting healthier food choices in Kenya.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".