Health claims: Consumers' matters

This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies investigating the extent and the ways in which health claims influence consumers. It focuses on published international research on health claims from US, Australia, Canada, Brazil and European countries. Research papers (n = 42) that were identified were coded in terms of sample type, research objectives/questions, research design and methodological details, as well as results and implications for future research. Results provide a systematic overview of the context in which health claims have been examined in the past and present a synthesis of findings in six thematic categories, namely knowledge/awareness of dietary issues, effects of health claims on purchase decisions, effects of health claims on perception/attitudes/beliefs, sources of information and trust, framing of health claims and disease-risk reduction and health-enhancing claims as well as consumer purchase decision. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.