Food labels promote better choices among consumers
Giving junk food the red light as part of an easy-to-understand labeling system could be an effective means to help shoppers make healthy food choices, according to researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany.
The labeling system cautions against food items high in fat, sugar and salt by placing an image of a red light on the package, a yellow light for middle-of-the-road food items and food that’s considered healthy gets a green light.
The research team tested the system on 35 adult participants, 19 of which were women.
Attached to a brain scanner, participants were shown images of 100 food items and their respective nutritional information-items varied from ready-to-serve meals to chocolate to yogurt.
Researchers randomly assigned either standard nutrition information labels or the traffic light system to the food items and participants were asked how much they would be willing to pay for each product.
They were willing to pay more for items sporting a green traffic light than items of comparable health that were labeled with the conventional system.
They said they were least willing to pay for red light items, however, they showed a willingness to pay more for items that were labeled conventionally but were every bit as junky as the red light items.
While this research implies that consumers are able to exercise self-control — perhaps more so than previously thought — deceptive labeling practices could neutralize the effects of the traffic light system, according to another German study.
The research team, hailing from Munich, says the traffic light system focuses on specific product attributes — fat, sugar, salt — while ignoring other important points of consideration, giving consumers a false sense of security.
Currently, the traffic light system is in use in the UK, although it remains controversial, for a recent Canadian study found it creates too much conflict for shoppers who don’t have time to determine the lesser of two evils.
In that study, the NuVal labeling system proved to be more effective than the traffic light system as well as the conventional Nutrition Facts label, and a mock-up system intended to mimic a Scandinavian label that says point blank if a food is healthy or not.
The NuVal system reveals foods’ health values by scoring them on a scale of one to 100.
