Responsible Marketing in the Traffic Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study analyzed RM in the TLNL of food products from the perception of consumers in the urban area of Cuenca, Ecuador. This is a meaningful study for providing a greater understanding of RM and front-end food labeling, especially TLNL. However, some issues still need to be improved or explained.  Comments are in the following:

1. The last paragraph of the introduction should clearly explain the significance of the research, the research content and methods, the research significance and prospect analysis. Please carefully modify.
2. L42: “are” to “is”.
3. Information such as SPSS and STATA versions, as well as the method of statistical analysis and the criteria for statistical significance should be indicated in 2.4. Data Analysis.
4. Why are relevant surveys conducted between the months of May and June? Whether different regions and times have an impact on the survey results?
5. L71: Literature stack is serious, select representative references.
6. For references, please refer to the publication requirements carefully for citation. There are errors and incomplete writing. Please revise them one by one.
7. What is the range of high, medium or low nutrient content represented by the different color labels of nutritional labeling applied in the survey?
8. In conclusion: the content expresses too much. It is suggested that the author elaborate on the relative content in the discussion part.

Author Response

Explaining of the Review Report Form

Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers

Reviewer:

This study analyzed RM in the TLNL of food products from the perception of consumers in the urban area of Cuenca, Ecuador. This is a meaningful study for providing a greater understanding of RM and front-end food labeling, especially TLNL. However, some issues still need to be improved or explained.  Comments are in the following:

• The last paragraph of the introduction should clearly explain the significance of the research, the research content and methods, the research significance and prospect analysis. Please carefully modify.

We thank the reviewer for the suggestion and change the text according to the suggestion (Lines 122-129).

Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products is a tool that provides information to the consumer about the quality and nutritional value of food. In addition, it allows you to compare this information between similar products. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to analyze the RM in the TLNL of food products based on the perceptions of consumers in Cuenca, Ecuador. The research question that was raised was the following: What is the degree of understanding of the traffic light nutritional labeling of consumers in the urban area of the Cuenca canton? The results offer insights into how TLNL impacts consumers and provide a foundation for future scientific research.

• L42: “are” to “is”.

We thank the reviewer for the suggestion, we have changed in Line 42 of are to is.

• Information such as SPSS and STATA versions, as well as the method of statistical analysis and the criteria for statistical significance should be indicated in 2.4. Data Analysis.

We thank the reviewer for the suggestion and include information of statistical version and the method of statistical analysis (Lines 201-204).

The parameters of the models were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) method and, moreover, the significance level of the models used in this study for acceptance and rejection of the null hypothesis is 0.01, 0.05 and 0.10, respectively. The STATA® 16 statistical package was used to conduct the analysis.

• Why are relevant surveys conducted between the months of May and June? Whether different regions and times have an impact on the survey results?

The surveys were carried the months of May and June 2021 according to the schedule of activities, complying with the respective biosafety measures related to COVID-19.

• L71: Literature stack is serious, select representative references.

We thank to reviewer for the observation and we correction the reference (71).

• For references, please refer to the publication requirements carefully for citation. There are errors and incomplete writing. Please revise them one by one.

We thank to reviewer for the observation and we correction the reference.

• In conclusion: the content expresses too much. It is suggested that the author elaborate on the relative content in the discussion part.

We thank the reviewer for this suggestion, and we have made the change in this interpretation. (Lines: 403-412).

There are limitations to this study, because it was oriented only towards the urban area and not towards the rural area, so it is not possible to provide a conclusion at the Cuenca general population level. It was also not possible to observe whether people were actually using the TLNL when buying their food. Despite these limitations, the findings obtained in this study can serve as a baseline for future research, providing a greater understanding of RM and front-end food labeling, especially TLNL. In addition, the results of this research can serve as support for decision-making in companies and government concerning RM strategies that do not favor the sale of products which are harmful to people's health.

It is important to mention that the title of the Article was changed at the suggestion of the other reviewer, because the title was too large.

Kind regards,

Otilia Vanessa Cordero-Ahiman

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The MS "Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: A Case Study of the Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers" is really an interesting study with really impactful message. Couple of Suggestions are given below just to improve the readability of the MS:

1. Title is too large, try to reduce it if possible.
2. If possible make a subsection of importance impact of TLNL with some citation in Discussion section

All the best!

Author Response

Explaining of the Review Report Form

Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers

Reviewer:

The MS "Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: A Case Study of the Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers" is really an interesting study with really impactful message. Couple of Suggestions are given below just to improve the readability of the MS:

1. Title is too large, try to reduce it if possible.

We thank the reviewer for this recommendation, and we have changed the title of the article to “Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers”.

1. If possible make a subsection of importance impact of TLNL with some citation in Discussion section

We thank the reviewer for this suggestion, and we have made the change (Lines: 403-412).

However, other studies have recommended that entities planning to create and manage public policies on health and nutrition analyze the possibility of implementing octagonal warning labels, since according to several studies these are more effective than the TLNL. This is due to some misunderstandings around product nutrition that have been detected with TLNL, such as products with both the TLNL green image indicating “low in salt” (encouraging product purchase) and the red image indicating “high sugar or fat content” (encouraging product rejection), which may lead to the consumption of non-nutritive products [66,114–120]. Furthermore, TLNL is unlikely to be used by individuals with the vision problems such as color blindness, as they are unable to distinguish between red and green [35].

Kind regards,

Otilia Vanessa Cordero-Ahiman

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

The formulas should be numbered.

Author Response

Explaining of the Review Report Form

Responsible Marketing in the Traffic-Light Labeling of Food Products in Ecuador: Perceptions of Cuenca Consumers

Reviewer:

1. The formulas should be numbered.

We thank the reviewer for this suggestion, and we have made the changes (Lines: 178, 196)

It is important to mention that the title of the Article was changed at the suggestion of the other reviewer, because the title was too large.

Kind regards,

Otilia Vanessa Cordero-Ahiman

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Through the modification, the article has been improved greatly. This article is recommended for acceptance.