KOREASCHOLAR

Introduction
Drawing from Kahneman and Tversky’s, (1979) prospect theory, this conceptual paper attempts to go beyond our knowledge of how consumers understand, perceive, use, and apply nutritional information on nutritional labels especially at the point of purchase (Cowburn & Stockley, 2005; Grunert & Wills, 2007; Miller & Cassady, 2015) to examine whether a health-conscious consumer’s food product choice decision will largely be based on negative or positive nutrients on the nutritional label. This has become necessary because of the criticality of consumers’ decisions regarding nutrition issues to marketers and policymakers (Chen, 2013; Clare & Burghardt, 2015; Ellison et al., 2013) which has resulted in a growing interest in nutritional information issues among researchers. A review of the extant relevant literature also shows that, studies examining how consumers place value on the positive nutrients (those that enhance and improve their health – e.g. Vitamins) and negative nutrients (those that have deteriorating effect on their health – e.g. Fats) and how they affect their purchasing decision are scarce.
Conclusion
This paper argues that, it is not enough to know how consumers understand, perceive, use and apply the nutritional information especially at the point of purchase etc. shown in the literature. There is the need to go further to examine the influence the nutrient content claim (both positive and negative nutrients) have on consumer nutritional choice decision when purchasing a food product. There is also a need to go beyond the dieting and ill consumers who because of their conditions seek specific nutrients in their foods and consider the larger consumer segment who are health-conscious by taking Burton and Andrews (1996) and Baltas’ (2001) research a step further. The study provides evidence for the use of prospect theory in nutritional label issues and go a long way to reinforce its application in this regard. The study enables marketers to: gain understanding of what nutrient content claim will cause a consumer to decide to purchase a food product when seen on a nutritional label; shape the format of the nutritional information on nutritional labels for easy use by consumers; and know what to emphasize in communicating nutritional information to their consumers.

• Otto Afiuc(Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana)
• Michael Nkrumah(Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana)
• Frederick Owusu Sarpong(Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana)
• Kofi Osei-Frimpong(Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Ghana)