The design of nutrition labels

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation was to expose the process involved in the design and the actual design of a nutrition label for restaurant’s menus. The increasing overweight and obesity rates are a major concern for health organizations and governments. In order to fight this epidemic, the Commission of the European Communities outlined a Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity related to health issues determining, among others, that providing nutritional information to consumers is a critical factor that may influence healthier food choices. Since the habit of eating out-of-home is related to the increasing overweight and obesity rates as well, the disclosure of nutritional information in restaurants (or mass caterers in general) can provide guidance to consumers while choosing their food. The process of designing a nutrition label for restaurant’s menu was divided in to parts. The first part addressed research on communication, infographics and on the state-of-the-art of nutrition labels. The second part, and supported in the collected information and case studies’ analysis, was related with determining the type of information to include in the label and the nutritional criteria in which it was going to be based. It also included the actual design decisions related to the model of a nutrition label for restaurants’ menus, to be software generated. As future work it was pointed the necessity of testing it within the market and consumers and to develop an interactive solution for providing customized nutritional guidance.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cristina Sá (Supervisor) & Ana Gomes (Co-Supervisor)