Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/324882 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IFRO Working Paper No. 2025/01
Publisher: 
University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO), Copenhagen
Abstract: 
Fish consumers are often challenged by tradeoffs between nutritional benefits and contaminant risks, which increase due to environmental pollution. Health campaigns and labeling initiatives can guide decision-making by providing information both on contaminant risk and nutritional value of a product, but it is not well understood how consumers react to such complex dual labels. We use data from a stated choice experiment in Kenya's Lake Victoria region to study how consumers respond to dual labels on fish products, and how their responses to each label interact. We focus on the tradeoff between polyunsaturated fatty acids and contamination with microcystin, a toxin that accumulates in fish during harmful algae blooms. Our findings suggest that, faced with a dual information policy, consumers react rationally to dual health attribute labeling, and that nutrient labels and contaminant warnings can function concurrently, indeed even be mutually reinforcing, but pose a risk of inadvertently concentrating unhealthful consumption in less responsive subpopulations.
Subjects: 
food labels
fish consumer behavior
interdependent preferences
choice experiment
polyunsaturated fatty acids
algal blooms
Lake Victoria
JEL: 
D12
I18
Q22
Q18
Q51
O13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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