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Food packaging can be quite misleading.? A bundle might be labeled “fat-free” however the substitute ingredients can make it just as full of calories because the original product.? Or a food label can state that it’s created using wheat or multigrain, but if it’s not labeled “whole grain,” then you definitely won’t be getting the nutrients, fiber and vitamins of the whole grain product.
Since part of selling an item is in its packaging, marketers use the package to distinguish one product versus its competition.? All the “sell” messages can make things really perplexing for consumers.? In fact, nearly 59 percent of shoppers have a problem understanding nutritional facts on food packaging, based on a Nielsen survey.
In an attempt to help make the good and the bad simpler to recognize, Massachusetts General Hospital tested a “Green Light, Sore point, Eat Right” campaign within their cafeteria.? The outcomes of the study happen to be published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine.
In March 2010, they started labeling food with straight-forward tags:? a benefit to healthy items, yellow for less healthy items and red for unhealthy items.? They also re-organized the meals to ensure that healthy products were simpler to see than unhealthy items. To ensure everyone understood the tags, signage was posted to describe the goal of the new coding system. Their cash register system, which contained base line information from previous months, tracked the colour categories of the purchases.
After 24 months, the study team analyzed the results. ?The sale of red items transpired from 24 percent to 21 percent.? The largest decrease was at red-labeled beverages, for example regular soda, that went from 27 percent to 18 percent.? Meanwhile, the sale of green items went up 41 percent to 46 percent.
The study authors state, “These results claim that simple food environment interventions can enjoy a major role in public health policies to reduce obesity.”
One of the study’s authors, Dr. Thorndike, suggests employing this concept in your own home by having color coding and placing healthy food in easy to reach places.
“While the detailed information on the nutrition label is important to examine, it’s hard to do that every time you wish to eat something.? Color coding and organizing food by its health content is a fascinating, universal method that can be used to quickly communicate how healthy an item is,” says Dr. Tony Hampton, a family medicine doctor with Advocate Medical Group.
“So when individuals are in a rush, trying to grab food on the run, coding can be a reminder to keep nutrition top of mind while making a selection.”
