The new labels will put saturated fat, sodium and added sugar directly in front of shoppers in an effort to nudge people to make healthier choices.
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In 2016, Chile introduced mandatory labels on the front of packaging, alerting consumers to high levels of sugar, saturated fat and other potentially harmful ingredients.
In 2022, Brazil also implemented mandatory front-of-package labels for products.
Colleen Tewksbury, an assistant professor of nutrition science at the University of Pennsylvania, said research has shown that the labels do influence what people buy in those countries.
However, she said, those findings may not easily translate to the U.S., where “individualism” prevails and consumers don’t “want to be told what to do.”
Often, she said, the people who change their buying behavior were the ones who were already looking to make changes.
“Research is relatively clear that having very simplistic front of packaging labeling does catch people’s attention, but the second step to that is whether or not it changes purchasing behaviors,” Tewksbury said. “We really don’t know if it’s going to fully impact people’s purchasing habits.”
Smith Taillie, of the University of North Carolina, questioned whether the new label would help people make healthier choices, noting that the design looks similar to what’s already found on the back of food packaging.
She also said the front-of-package label could cause confusion among shoppers, with its inclusion of percent daily value and a low to high ranking system.
“A ‘low’ in sugar label on a product that does not typically contain sugar anyway may lead consumers to think a product is healthier than it is,” she said.
Источник: www.nbcnews.com
