Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Consumers’ Evaluation Of Animal Welfare Labels On Poultry Products, Rexanna Powers, Nan Li, Courtney Gibson, Erica Irlbeck

Journal of Applied Communications

As the public has expressed increasing concerns regarding the humane raising and handling of farm animals, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and industry organizations have developed a series of standards enforcing animal welfare in the poultry industry. Labels and value-added claims were created and defined to differentiate products and to inform consumers’ purchasing decisions. This study identified five labels related to animal welfare that are frequently found on food packages in the U.S. grocery stores, including both the mandatory labels and third-party, voluntary labels. Using a controlled online experiment (N=249), we examined the labels’ effects on consumers’ perception …