Interplay of Food Labeling on Consumer Purchasing Behavior: Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Abstract

Food labeling is considered to be a very significant public health strategy designed to give customers information that may affect their purchasing decisions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how consumers made decisions regarding the critical information on food labels. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire distributed using online platform survey consist of 4 sections; demographic profile, food labeling, consumers’ attitude, and consumers’ purchasing behavior. Descriptive statistics was used for the demographic results of the respondents using SPSS. Results showed on the 213 respondents that 114 or 53.5 % are female, 144 or 67.7% are on the age group 21-30 years old, 151 or 70.9% are with bachelor’s degree, and 127 or 59.6% are employed. In addition, SPSS was used in assessing the respondents in terms of the constructs on food labeling; product name, ingredients, net content, expiration date/consume before date, and nutritional facts. Moreover, Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modeling (PLS – SEM) approach was used to test the hypotheses of the study using the software WarpPLS. In conducting hypotheses testing, it was first tested using confirmatory factor analysis and validity checks including the convergent validity, reliability measures, and discriminant validity. The results showed all passed the threshold limits. The study was then subjected to a second-order (higher-order) construct specifically on food labeling. In line with this, the results showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between the nutritional facts on food labeling and consumers’ purchasing behavior. It was then concluded that, nutritional label affects the purchasing behavior mainly because the consumers want to avoid the adverse nutrients in food products.