Food packaging regulations
Are you an IDE Master student with an interest in legal issues, and are you ready to start your graduation project?
Although governments have implemented regulations to inform consumers on important product properties and protect consumers from deceptive information, empirical research on how consumers perceive, interpret and experience food packages have shown frequently that consumers may be misled by a packaging design. While communication in some domains is strictly regulated (health), claims in other domains are largely free (natural, artisanal) and do not require substantiation. Subtleties in wording, image use and image style may affect the impressions consumers form, but many of these are not regulated.
Many of the current rules make sure that things are formally correct, but they do not seem to consider how consumers process this information. To support consumer decision-making, legislators should consider the effects a message and the way it is communicated (e.g., content, typeface, size, use of images, stylistic features) may have on buyers.
You will explore how rules and regulations are currently developed in the food packaging domain and determine which principles should be considered when developing effective rules and regulations from different perspectives. Your findings could potentially lead you to a new approach for the packaging regulations.
The main question of the project is:
How can we (re)design packaging regulations for effective and balanced messaging /labeling /branding that stimulates sustainable food business practices and informed consumer decision making?
The project will be supervised by Rick Schifferstein (Food & Eating Design Lab h.n.j.schifferstein@tudelft.nl), Fernando Secomandi (Justice by Design Lab; F.Secomandi@tudelft.nl), and will be supported by Lieke Beelen (https://www.visualcontracts.eu).
