The Dating Game – Understanding Expiration Phrase-Date Salience Using Eye Tracking Technology
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Date
2023-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Expiration dates on food products have been known to promote food waste in consumer households. Current policies on date labeling target standardizing the phrases without any efforts to expand date horizons. The current research in this field is unclear regarding whether the date (Nov 29) or the phrase (e.g. sell by) has the greatest impact on food discard. Eye tracking technology is a useful tool which can be used for visual analysis. This implicit technique allows researchers to see beyond just the explicit feedback that participants provide and see truly what they are looking at. Eye-tracking was used to analyze how consumers look at milk expiration labels and what information ultimately encourages them to keep or discard foods. The study was conducted using a mixed design with 68 participants. Panelists wore eye-tracking glasses throughout the study and saw multiple milk carton images on the screen featuring different dates. Along with the images, they were given physical milk samples to smell which they were told were from the milk carton on the screen. Data was processed in Tobii Pro Lab software and a Mixed ANOVA model was used for statistical analyses. The results indicated that viewers tend to fixate on the date more than the phrasing (p<0.001) when making their discard decisions, both in the presence and in the absence of a real shelf-life indicator. On average, 50% of the panelists did not look at the phrase at all. Panelists tend to fixate more on the date when a "use by" label was present as opposed to "best if used by" or "sell by" label (p=0.037). Since the label phrase is rarely looked at when making discard decisions, standardizing the phrases is unlikely to reduce food discard by itself. The results from this study inform current policy development surrounding date labeling with the potential to influence food discard and consequently food waste.
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Keywords
Food Waste, Sustainability, Date labels, Eye Tracking, Consumer Study