Fiona Macrae
April 03, 2013
Daily Mail
IT IS seen as healthier and tastier – and millions of shoppers willingly pay more to enjoy it.
But, researchers from Cornell University in New York State, say the benefits of organic food may simply exist in our heads.
They believe it is gaining from a “health halo effect”, where consumers assume foods labelled as organic automatically have positive features.
These include being better for us, tastier and having fewer calories.
For their study, scientists asked 115 male and female shoppers to take part in a taste test.
They were given two samples of biscuits, crisps and yoghurt. Each pair was labelled as either organic or a non-organic but, in reality, they were identical organic foods. The results showed that the shoppers’ perceptions were swayed by the labels.
Those tagged “organic” were seen as being lower fat and containing up to a quarter fewer calories. They were also rated as higher in fibre and more nutritious, according to a report in the journal Food Quality and Preference.
Crucially for retailers, the shoppers were willing to pay up to a quarter more for snacks they believed were organic.
But, said the researchers, the “non-organic” biscuits were judged to be tastier.
This was possibly because people may instinctively think healthy biscuits will not taste as good.
The authors have previously warned that the effect could lead to over-eating as shoppers under-estimate calorie counts.
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