Characteristics of consumers using ‘better for you’ front-of-pack food labelling schemes : an example from the Australian Heart Foundation Tick

Objective: The Heart Foundation Tick aims to help consumers make healthier food choices and overcome confusion in understanding food labels. Little is known about what factors differentiate frequent from infrequent users, and effectiveness of this scheme in helping Australian’s make healthier food choices. Design: A cross-sectional survey was used to explore use of the Tick, and associations with a range of individual characteristics. Setting: A national panel of Australians, living in each state and territory completed the online survey (N=1446). Subjects: Men (41%) and women aged 18 years and over participated in the study. Results: Most trust the Heart Foundation (79%), and use the Tick at least occasionally (19% regularly, 21% often, 35% occasionally, 24% never). A majority was classified as overweight/obese (60%), 3.5 % were diagnosed with coronary heart disease, 5.2 % with diabetes, and 23 % with hypertension. Many did not meet recommendations for consumption of red meat (30%), processed meat (23%), vegetables (78%), fruit (43%), and fast foods (47%). Female frequent users tended to have hypertension, be married/defacto, older than 45 years, rural dwellers, and limit their intake of fast foods. Male frequent users tended to have hypertension, meet recommendations for fruit, vegetable and processed meats, but not have a tertiary education. Conclusions: The Heart Foundation Tick is a highly trusted, highly recognizable food labeling scheme and helpful to consumers who are motivated to make healthier food choices. More inter-sector collaboration is required to incorporate these schemes into public health campaigns to help consumers make healthier food choices.