Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Quality and Preference journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual How packaging colours and claims influence children’s vegetable attitude and intake – An exploratory cross-cultural comparison between Indonesia and Denmark Stephanie Angka a , Valerie Hémar-Nicolas b , Hanum Putri Hapsari a , Annemarie Olsen a, ⁎ a University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Department of Food Science, Section for Design and Consumer Behaviour, Rolighedsvej 26, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark b University of Paris-Sud/Paris Saclay, Faculty Jean Monnet of Law, Economics, and Management, Boulevard Desgranges 54, BP 104, 92331 Sceaux Cedex, France ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Packaging Marketing Claims Colour Vegetables Children ABSTRACT Most marketing strategies for children focus on unhealthy foods, and it is less well investigated whether they can also be used to promote healthy foods. Furthermore, although it is relevant to know whether marketing stra- tegies perform comparably across cultures, few studies include children from different countries. Therefore, the primary aim of this explorative study was to explore to what extent packaging colours and claims influence children’s attitudes to vegetable products, and whether plate colour influences vegetable intake. The secondary aim was to investigate cultural differences between Indonesia and Denmark. A total of 132 Indonesian and 84 Danish children participated. The study consisted of an actual consumption part where cucumbers were served on red, blue, and white plates, and a questionnaire part, where children evaluated cucumber packaging in the three colours with no claim, a healthy claim or a tasty claim. Children rated: willingness to eat (WTE), willingness to ask parents to buy (WTB), willingness to recommend to friends (WTR), attitude towards product, packaging liking, attitude towards packaging, and favourite packaging. Results showed no direct effects of packaging colours and claims on the WTE, WTB, and WTR, and only little influence on product attitude. However, favourite colour influenced packaging colour preference. Plate colour did not influence consumption, but familiarity and liking of the vegetable did. Generally, Indonesian children gave higher product scores than Danish children but consumed less. 1. Introduction It is a worldwide challenge for children to meet the nutritional re- commendations for fruits and vegetables, which is 400 g a day (WHO, 2018). On average, children in Europe and Indonesia consume 141/ 109 g of fruits and 86/53 g of vegetables per day, respectively (Hermina & Prihatini, 2016; Yngve et al., 2005). Accordingly, many studies have investigated factors influencing children’s eating behaviour including ways to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables, and the use of food packaging has been proposed as one approach (Birch & Fisher, 1998; DeCosta, Møller, Frøst, & Olsen, 2017). In a Portuguese study, implementing packaging design traditionally used for junk food to promote a sliced-apple product improved children’s willingness to eat and purchase the product significantly (Pires & Agante, 2011). A study in Belgium revealed that using known cartoon characters on the packaging could improve children’s appetite for eating fruits, their in- tended frequency of fruit consumption, and intended willingness to ask parents to buy the product (Smits & Vandebosch, 2012). Therefore, there is a potential to utilise packaging design to promote healthy food in children. However, most studies on food packaging in children fo- cused on the influence of less healthy foods, for instance breakfast cereal and cookies (Hémar-Nicolas, 2011; Hill & Tilley, 2002; Maimaran & Fishbach, 2014). Consequently, it is highly necessary to explore the potential for using the techniques with healthy foods. Packaging design constitutes functional and visual attributes (Bloch, 1995), and several of them are known to be highly influential, e.g. colour, graphic design, shape, and product information (Silayoi & Speece, 2007). Specifically, in children, cartoon or brand character, claims, and design packaging significantly impact their preferences (McNeal & Ji, 2003; Pires & Agante, 2011; Zeghache, 2014) – probably because children process visual cues better than verbal cues (Matthews, 1997; Roedder, 1981; Rossiter, 1976; Valentini, 2004). Nonetheless, only a limited amount of research has been conducted to investigate the effects of various elements of food packaging on children’s eating https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2019.103795 Received 12 January 2019; Received in revised form 12 September 2019; Accepted 12 September 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: ano@food.ku.dk (A. Olsen). Food Quality and Preference 79 (2020) 103795 Available online 13 September 2019 0950-3293/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T