Eye Tracking Study Observes How Shoppers Use Food Labels

If you have ever had to search a food label for something specific – whether the item contains nuts, for example – you know that it can be frustrating locating the information you need. To make it even more complicated, you have to identify the preferred item amongst the rows of similar products on the shelf. Food packaging not only has to be attractive to consumers from a marketing standpoint, it also needs to display the necessary details on nutrition and ingredients. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) had a pilot study conducted using eye tracking technology to identify which information on food packaging shoppers actually look at.

Twelve participants wore a pair of eye-tracking glasses as they shopped in a grocery store. Using a mobile eye-tracking device permitted the study to be conducted in a real-world environment rather than a laboratory setting, which allowed for more realistic results. Half of the participants were asked to purchase three items in three categories (soup, yogurt, and cereal) that met specific criteria, and the other half were told to choose three items in the same categories, but without any criteria other than choosing a brand they don’t usually buy. The fixation pattern and timing of each shopper were recorded by the eye-tracking device, as each participant accomplished their assigned tasks.

There are multiple factors that influence a consumer’s decision to purchase a particular product, and this study investigated what the participants looked for, how they looked for items, and how long they looked at the items. The findings showed that shoppers don’t look at food labels unless they have a specific reason to. By evaluating the participants’ fixation patterns, which are the combination of eye and body behaviors, they found that shoppers have a preference for selecting an item based on product position and general packaging. In other words, consumers stand in front of a shelf and scan the rows of products rather than picking up each one and inspecting both sides of it. Based on the results of the pilot study, the FSA will use eye-tracking in future research on how shoppers use food labels.

Extending Rule Developing Experimentation to Perception of Food Packages with Eye Tracking

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