The study, published in Appetite, reports that people may be over-eating because super-sized packaging give them an inflated view of what a normal sized portion is – and that such overestimation could have an impact on caloric intake and weight status in the general population.
“Our results indicate a small but significant ‘pack size effect’ across all countries and for different types of food and drinks. If people were to actually consume the portions they estimate in this study, there would be a substantial increase in energy intake in each of these eating occasions,” said lead author Dr Sophie Hieke of the European Food Information Council (EUFIC) – which completed the research alongside researchers from the University of Surrey’s Consumer Behaviour and Health Research Centre.
According to Hieke and her colleagues, the study of more than 13,000 consumers in six European countries revealed that larger packs of food and drinks – including crisps, chocolate, lasagne and cola type drinks – were found to fool consumers in to overestimating healthy portion sizes.
The study calls for more research to better understand how people estimate portions – for example by studying whether people see portions and portions mentioned on food packs as a realistic amount of food or drink someone is likely to consume in one sitting as opposed to something someone should consume in one sitting.
“Answering this question would give us insight into the conceptualisation of food portions in people’s minds and the rationale behind the ratings people give in portion size experiments,” commented senior author Professor Monique Raats, from the University of Surrey.