1. Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic is substantially affecting lifestyles, national healthcare systems and global economies [
1]. Social isolation is doubtlessly an unpleasant experience that may negatively influence mental health [
2]. Explicitly, it is evident that diet has a profound effect on people’s immune systems and disease susceptibility [
3]. Therefore, the key to maintain an effective immune system is to avoid deficiencies of the nutrients that play an essential role in immune cell triggering, interaction, differentiation, or functional expression [
4].
Since to date there is no vaccine or evidence-based treatment for curing COVID-19 [
5], the optimization of nutrient intake through well-balanced meals and the use of good hygiene practices in food selection, preparation, and conservation is probably the most encouraging approach for managing the continuous risk of viral infection [
6]. To this end, the dissemination of healthy eating guidelines from healthcare professionals and the general public is a crucial strategy. Despite intense efforts by international nutrition organizations and other health-related societies to providing guidelines and advice to help control the COVID-19 pandemic, the literature is still scarce [
7,
8]. Meanwhile, the general public has been bombarded with a vast array of nutritional information from governmental authorities, the dietary supplement industry, nutrition enthusiasts and healthcare professionals emphasizing how to prevent COVID-19 [
9]. Interestingly, a worldwide trend has observed showing that individuals are interested in stocking up on processed foods during quarantine [
10].
Remarkably, during quarantine, a change in behavior while selecting food has been observed. Moreover, consumers prefer to select healthy packaged food; specifically, they select red meat, biscuits, and spreadable creams [
11]. It is difficult to understand which factor stimulates consumers to select healthy packaged food. Additionally, numerous factors motivate the consumers to select healthy packaged food including food labels information [
12], self-interest and the opinions of peers or family members [
13]. The aforementioned studies have reported inconsistent results regarding the impact of various factors for the selection of healthy packaged food. Some of the studies have identified that food label formats convince consumers to select healthy packaged food at the point of purchase [
14]. On the contrary, other studies have revealed the insignificant effect of food label information for healthy and nutritious packaged food selection [
15]. Moreover, some literature has revealed the fact that an individual’s self-ability is vigorously interlinked with the selection of healthy packaged food at the time of purchase [
16]. However, some results of prior studies have witnessed the insignificant effect of self-efficacy for the selection of healthy packaged food [
17]. Henceforth, there is a dire need to examine the specific factors which cause this changed behavior [
18].
Further, it is worthwhile to investigate the factors that influence and motivate consumers regarding healthy packaged food choices [
19]. Accordingly, the prior studies have indicated that the display of nutritional information with various icons like a heart, leaf, or any other visual cues, also does not ensure consumers’ healthy packaged food selection [
20]. Therefore, it is necessary to test hypotheses to examine the reasons that justify consumer’ intentions regarding the purchase of healthy packaged food items. The concept of reasons is itself dichotomous; it includes reasons for and reasons against [
21], which have been examined among different research settings [
22,
23]. In the current study, the researchers have simultaneously investigated the impact of reasons which motivate and demotivate individuals’ consumption intentions regarding healthy packaged foods during COVID-19. The concept is underpinned with Behavioral Reasoning Theory (BRT) [
24], which provides a linkage between beliefs, global motives (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control), intentions, and heterogeneous behaviors.
2. Literature
The extant literature has identified that front of pack labelling (FoPL), not only assists individuals with making informed decisions [
25,
26] but also encourages companies to improve their products concerning nutritional compositions. Although prior studies have reported that various forms of FoPL such as the green keyhole, traffic light symbols, and nutri-scores are getting popularity around the globe [
27], nevertheless, some of the studies have reported the discrepancies among consumers’ favorable and unfavorable opinions towards the usefulness of FoPL at point of purchase for the selection of healthy packaged food products [
28]. There is a need to contemplate these discrepancies for the generalized format of FoPL for informed decisions for healthy packaged food items [
29]. Consumers’ abilities to employ detailed FoPL information does not ensure healthy food selection [
30].
Many theorists have endeavored to comprehend the basic determinants of intention and behavior [
31]. Fortunately, the behavioral intention model plays a decisive role for the insight into behavioral and intention determinants [
32]. Moreover, behavioral intention theorists rely on the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior for demonstrating its fundamental determinants [
33]. These two models enunciate that attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control/self-efficacy predict individual intentions and behavior. Moreover, the behavioral intention model hypothesizes that the concepts of belief predict attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control [
34]. Additionally, the concepts of beliefs are the context of specific reasons which motivate and demotivate the individual towards any object [
35]. The extant literature has referred to the novel consumer behavior model, behavioral reasoning theory, to examine the antecedents which can encourage and discourage consumer behavior and intentions towards any object [
36]. Therefore, BRT describes reasons associated with the linkage between beliefs, reasons, attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy/perceived behavioral control, intention and behavior. According to BRT, reasons assist the individual in justifying the actions which protect and promote the individual’s self-worth [
37]. Henceforth, the authors of the current study have underpinned their model on BRT to examine consumer intentions towards healthy packaged food selection.
The prior studies have identified multiple reasons which motivate consumers at point of purchase to consult packaged food information for the selection of healthy packaged food [
38]. Besides, some of the studies have highlighted the reasons which demotivate consumer from consulting food label information at the point of sale [
39] while identifying the motivational and demotivational reasons to consult food label information at point of purchase based on the efficacy and inefficacy of food label information [
40]. In this regard, the current study identifies some reasons which encourage consumer attitudes to read food label information for health and some reasons which discourage consumer attitudes to read food labels for healthy packaged food selection. Moreover, the current study also examines the dichotomous impact of reasons like the reasons which encourage consumer attitude and reasons which discourage consumer intention to select healthy packaged food.
Several researchers have adopted subjective norms and self-efficacy for behavioral intention prediction [
41]. The scholars have conducted a meta-analysis of 161 studies and found that 39% of the variances in intention are accounted for by attitude, subjective norms and self-efficacy [
42]. Along with that, it has also been observed that 2% out of 39% belong to self-efficacy. This is small but significant. Prior studies have also deployed attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy for the investigation of breakfast intention among adolescents [
43]. Significantly, the results have exposed the fact that 53.1% of the variance in intention has been accounted for by attitude and self-efficacy, whereas subjective norms remain insignificant. The dimensions of the behavioral intention model illuminate several health-related issues like intake of fat reduction [
44] and eating behavior with respect to health [
45]. Some authors have addressed the healthy eating intentions of individuals with subjective norms [
46]. The results signify that 43% of the variance in healthy eating behavior has been accounted for by attitude, subjective norm and self-efficacy. Furthermore, scholars [
47] have also investigated the effect of the behavioral intention model on the physical activity and healthy eating habits of individuals. Conclusively, the current study has examined the impact of subjective norms and self-efficacy on the selection of healthy packaged food.
During the spread of COVID-19, medical specialists and practitioners have recommended healthy food for individuals to improve their immune system. It was the most suitable time to investigate an individual’s opinions about their selection of packaged food. In this regard, the current study has employed front of pack label, subjective norm and self-efficacy to contemplate the specific factors which are catalytic for the selection of healthy packaged food before COVID-19 and during the eruption of COVID-19.
7. Discussion
The current study contributes to the literature with the specific factors which orientated consumers to select healthy packaged food before and during the eruption of COVID-19. The study has been underpinned by the BRT approach, which is employed by researchers to examine the positive and negative aspects of variables simultaneously. The ultimate results of the study signify that although attitude plays a powerful role in intention, reasons for, and reasons against, it has a noticeable influence on intentions to choose healthy packaged food.
The results of the hypothesized model have identified that all of the hypotheses are significant and supported via empirical evidence. The execution of BRT has demonstrated that consumers’ favorable and unfavorable actions regarding the selection of any object are supported and justified by certain context-specific reasons. Although the current study has not evaluated each reason independently, the overall results demonstrate that BRT contemplates an intention, nevertheless BRT provides context-specific reasons which motivate the individual splendidly towards any object. The perk of BRT is the involvement of context-specific reasons which justify the individual’s behavior towards the acceptance and rejection of any object. Moreover, reasons for attitude and reasons against the attitude is directly affected by intentions. These positive and negative influences demonstrate that there are certain context-specific reasons which facilitate or restrict consumers while taking decisions. During the pandemic, the participants remained in lockdown and were continuously listening to the food recommendations to develop their immune system. Henceforth, the same behavior has been found in their responses in the current study. It is arguable that the reason for attitude has explained the healthy food selection intention with 35%, while the lowest explanatory value was self-efficacy with 2%. Convincingly, it indicates that even during COVID-19, individuals’ internal intentions and motivation to select healthy packaged food has been remained diverted. Reasonably, the factor of this diversion is in accord with the prior studies which illustrate that consumers consume packaged food excessively because of convenience rather than healthiness. In comparison with self-efficacy, the subjective norm has a vigorous effect on the intention to select healthy packaged food during the COVID-19 outbreak. Owing to the intensity of pandemic, the recommendation for the selection of healthy packaged food has also been considered.
It has been observed in previous studies that consumers’ attitudes toward healthy and informed food choices are inconsistent [
62]. Similarly, the effect of subjective norms on the intention to use balanced packaged food has not been provided with a comprehensive explanation due to either favorable [
63] or unfavorable findings [
64]. Previous results regarding self-efficacy’s effect on healthy food selection are also inconsistent. A few researchers have reported that individuals’ internal strength is extremely supportive in taking any decision regarding healthy packaged food, while others have indicated that self-efficacy does not play a role in healthy food choices [
65].
The effects of the reasons for and reasons against are perceptible. These reasons indicate that certain context-specific reasons suggest the adoption of FoP label information to enable knowledgeable packaged food selection intention [
66,
67]. There were nine reasons; health self-consciousness has been signified as the most influential reason. Henceforth, during COVID-19, food processing companies should focus on the health factor of packaged food products while determining food label information. The most decisive context-specific reasons against are the technical information, language difficulty, labels crowded with irrelevant information, the difficulty of interpretation, labels not in the native language, and lack of prior nutritional awareness. The respondents’ feedback on reasons again explains that there are strong reasons that pose a hurdle to consumers successfully interpreting food label information.
People are more conscious about healthy food during COVID-19. Moreover, packaged food is the most preferred food for consumers due to convenience. Henceforth, food processing companies must create awareness among consumers regarding healthy or balanced packaged food consumption.
BRT has assisted the current study in identifying context-specific reasons employing the consumers’ cognitive processes regarding healthy packaged food consumption intentions during COVID-19. Moreover, BRT has also manifested context-specific reasons which influence the intentions of individuals asymmetrically in order to select the healthy packaged foods.
Although this study has unveiled a new dimension for investigating context-specific reasons that play a catalytic role in individuals’ intentions regarding a given subject, there are still certain limitations. For future studies, the researchers should make a list of specific packaged food items while categorizing them to contemplate the usage intensity. In packaged food, there are multiple options and consumers have different behavior towards different packaged food items. Moreover, future studies should contemplate a population having an age range from 18 to 75. The diverse population will provide better results for generalization. Additionally, the proposed model should be examined separately for both genders, demonstrating whether the same reasons for and against can influence both genders.
8. Conclusions
This study has employed the BRT technique to investigate the intentions for consuming healthy packaged food. Although BRT originated as an extended form of the theory of planned behavior, it profoundly explains consumers’ intentions regarding any subject. There are certain specific reasons which play a vigorous role in shaping consumers’ specific intentions under the aegis of logical reasoning. Further, these reasons later serve as justifications for decisions. The current study has also revealed certain context-specific reasons that affect consumers’ intentions regarding healthy packaged food selection. Food processing companies employ several label formats to facilitate consumers’ making informed packaged food choices, but these formats are not achieving the desired results. Relevantly, the comprehension of the nutritional information which is printed on food labels varies from consumer to consumer and country to country. Henceforth, the current study has endeavored to identify the specific reasons which provoke consumers to read a food label or restrict them from examining food label information at the point of purchase. Several prior studies have investigated consumers’ intentions regarding food selection but no study has been found which identifies context-specific reasons that influence consumers’ intentions. The extant literature has employed the theory of planned behavior and the theory of reasoned action to investigate intentions, but the BRT technique has emphasized these reasons because human beings need strong justification of their decisions and instinctual behavior. Remarkably, BRT has identified favorable and unfavorable reasons which can assist food processing companies in deciding how to display nutritional information on food labels during COVID-19 while orientating the consumers to select the healthy packaged food.
Perceiving the consumers’ intentions or behavior towards the selection of healthy food is not surprising because several researchers have contributed in various dimensions. Food label formats have remained the main discussion point because there is no formal method for investigating individual intentions about healthy packaged food or restaurants’ food selections. The contribution of the current study is the theory of behavioral reasoning, which facilitates researchers to simultaneously investigate the reasons for and reasons against any object. To the best of our knowledge, no such study has examined consumers’ packaged food intentions with context-specific reasons. This model has provided broader knowledge to food processing companies about consumers in understanding which reasons influence consumers’ intentions in selecting healthy packaged food and which reasons become hindrances in selecting healthy packaged food.