Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels and Point-of-Decision Strategies to Improve Food Choice Quality

• Published in: American journal of public health (1971) Vol. 109; no. 12; pp. 1624 - 1625
• Main Author: Gustafson, Christopher R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Public Health Association 01-12-2019
• Subjects: Agricultural economics; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Body weight; Brand loyalty; Choice Behavior; Community; Consumers; Descriptive labeling; Food; Food Labeling - methods; Food Labeling - standards; Food production; Food quality; Global Health; Hall, Lincoln; Health care; Health Promotion; Humans; Income; Labeling; Labels; Nutrition; Nutrition/Food; Nutritive Value; Obesity; Obesity, Overweight, Underweight; Other Statistics/Evaluation/Research; Overweight; Packaged food; Population; Preferences; Public health; Respondents; Social Science; Supermarkets; Singapore; United Kingdom > UK; France; United States > US; New York City New York
• ISSN: 0090-0036; 1541-0048
• DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2019.305384

The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased throughout the world over the past 40 to 50 years, leading to a marked rise in the disease burden related to high body mass index.1 Efforts by public health officials and policymakers, including 25 years of mandatory nutritional labeling for packaged food products in the United States (Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, 21 USC 301 [1990]), have not slowed or reversed the trend of rising overweight and obesity.Recently, front-of-pack nutrition labels, which provide easily accessible information and guidance about key nutritional attributes, have generated interest among policymakers and private industry as a way to address unhealthy diets, resulting in myriad label options, which may perform differently depending on attributes of the label. Already, multiple governments-including in Singapore, the United Kingdom, and France-have given official recognition to one front-of-pack label (which differs in each country), although use of the label is voluntary.Before other countries officially recognize a particular frontof-pack label, policymakers should consider evidence about the efficacy of different labels. Some research aiming to understand variation in consumer response to different front-of pack labels has been conducted. For instance, in a multinational study of consumers, Feunekes et al. examined response to different labels-how understandable, credible, and likeable labels were-and how they affected respondents' intention to use them. Crosetto et al. evaluated differences in the effectiveness of two front-of-pack labels in a study in which participants were incentivized to build a healthy menu, finding that the efficacy of the labels varied depending on the number of nutritional attributes the participants had to consider and whether the participants faced time pressure. Both of these studies stopped short of investigating choice based on consumers' preferences, and both were limited in their geographic scope.