When you're standing in the grocery aisle comparing two products, what helps you decide which one is healthier? Maybe it's the nutrition facts, a claim on the package or simply a familiar brand. But what if a red warning label could change how you see that food?
A new study suggests that the way nutrition information is displayed on food packages can influence what shoppers notice and how healthy they think a product is. Researchers found that straightforward warning labels were easier to understand than a color-coded nutrition score, although neither approach consistently influenced whether people said they'd buy a product.
The study, published in Frontiers in Nutrition, compared two systems used overseas. Germany uses Nutri-Score, which grades foods from A to E using colors ranging from green to red. Israel requires red warning labels on foods high in sugar, sodium or saturated fat and allows green labels on certain healthier foods.
Researchers recruited 223 adults in Germany and Israel and showed them images of fictional food packages displaying either labeling system. Special cameras tracked where participants looked and how long they spent examining the labels. Participants then rated selected foods based on how healthy and tasty they seemed and whether they would consider buying them.
One finding stood out: People noticed familiar labels more quickly but spent more time looking at unfamiliar ones.
German participants recognized Nutri-Score faster but spent longer examining the Israeli labels. Israeli participants did the opposite. The researchers suggested that people may need less time to understand labels they've seen before, while unfamiliar designs naturally invite a closer look.
The Israeli warning labels also proved easier to understand. Participants in both countries rated them as more helpful for choosing healthy foods, even when they were unfamiliar with the system.
And the labels sometimes changed how people judged the food itself.
For example, products such as crackers, cornflakes and protein bars generally seemed less healthy to participants when they carried red warnings about specific nutrients than when they displayed an overall nutrition score.
That makes some sense. Seeing a warning that a product is high in sugar or sodium sends a different message than seeing a letter grade. But the researchers didn't find that one labeling system consistently changed how healthy people considered products overall.
More importantly, those differences didn't necessarily translate into purchasing decisions. Neither labeling system had a significant overall effect on whether participants said they'd buy the products.
Of course, deciding whether you'd purchase something in a study isn't the same as making that decision at the grocery store. Participants viewed fictional packages on a screen, without having to consider prices, favorite brands or what they actually wanted to eat.
The findings are especially relevant as the United States considers changing how nutrition information appears on packaged foods. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed adding a Nutrition Info box to the front of most packaged foods, showing whether they contain low, medium or high amounts of saturated fat, sodium and added sugars.
Unlike an overall nutrition score, the proposed American label would highlight specific nutrients, giving shoppers a quick way to identify what's in a product. The proposal has not been finalized.
Still, there's no single label that tells you everything about a food. An overall score can make it easier to compare products, while a warning label draws attention to particular nutrients. Both provide useful information, but neither captures the full picture of how a food fits into someone's diet.
The researchers also cautioned that their findings may not reflect how everyone shops. Participants were relatively young, averaging about 28 years old, and were recruited around university campuses in Germany and Israel.
What the study does show is that how nutrition information is presented matters. A label might catch someone's attention or make a food seem healthier or less healthy, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will change what ends up in their shopping cart.
The study was supported by the University of Hohenheim–Hebrew University Faculties of Agriculture Cooperation Program.