The ingredient section of food packages provides crucial insights into the product's components and health effects. However, only some consumers pay attention to the ingredient section. Many consumers tend to read other components of food packages. Previous studies about packaging focus more on improving visual design. Not much research has explored the ingredient section. This study investigates people's gaze distribution on the ingredient section when viewing food packages. The impacts of the following variables are studied: subjects’ education level, different types of ingredients, and the length of the ingredient section. Moreover, an eye-tracking device is adopted in this study. An eye tracker could provide quantitative results of people's attention. This study sampled 22 participants in total. T-test results indicated that participants with a higher education level tended to focus more on the ingredient section than less educated ones. Additionally, people focused more on uncommon ingredients than common ones. When viewing lengthy ingredient sections, people looked at the middle area more than the top and bottom areas. These research findings could contribute to improving food packaging design and call for increasing awareness about nutrition-related knowledge.

Wang Jingyuan. An Eye-tracking Study of People’s Perception towards the Ingredient Section on Food Packages. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2023) Vol. 5, Issue 9: 85-89. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2023.050914.

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