Job Market Paper:

Added Protein, Added Value? Consumer Demand for Protein Labels Across Product Types, Flavors, and Consumer Segments 

(with Brenna Ellison and Maria Kalaitzandonakes)

Revise and Resubmit at Food Quality and Preference; Manuscript available upon request.

There has been growing public interest in protein. Food firms have been increasingly labeling protein content prominently and offering versions of products with added protein. Food labels can impact consumers’ perceptions of healthfulness, taste, and naturalness, affecting their choices, willingness to pay, and ultimately, health. In this paper, we utilize a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to evaluate U.S. consumer demand for added-protein labels across contexts, including evaluating how demand differs across product types (products naturally low vs. high in protein) and flavors (hedonic vs. utilitarian). We find, on average, consumers were willing to pay for added protein labels on products naturally high in protein and expressed higher willingness to pay when applied to hedonic products. We use mixed logit and latent class model (LCM) approaches to capture heterogeneity in consumer demand, highlighting how demographics, exercise habits, purchase experience, and food concerns relate to preferences for added protein. With evolving health- conscious trends and an increasingly complex protein-labeling landscape, these findings provide important insights for stakeholders across the food system.