FDA Study Examines Nutrition Facts Labeling
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) researchers recently published a study claiming that consumers found it easier to compare food items with singleserving or dual-column nutrition facts (NF) labels as opposed to the NF labels currently in use. Lando and Lo, “Single-LargerPortion-Size and Dual-Column Nutrition Labeling May Help Consumers Make More Healthful Food Choices,” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, February 2013. Scientists with FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition apparently asked 9,482 adults to determine the healthfulness of a single product or compare the nutrition information on two products using one of the following NF configurations: (i) a single-column format listing two servings per container; (ii) a dual-column format listing two servings per container, with one column showing NFs per serving and one column showing NFs per container; and (iii) a single-column format listing a larger single serving per container. Within each of these formats, “there were versions that enlarged the font size for ‘calories,’ removed ‘calories from fat,’ and changed the wording for serving size declaration.”
The survey results evidently suggested that “[f]or products that contain 2 servings but are customarily consumed at a single eating occasion, using a single-serving or dual-column labeling approach may help consumers make healthier food choices.” In particular, the study noted that in the single product task, “the only label format modification that appeared to consistently affect healthfulness ratings was the modification that defined the entire container as a single serving.” But when participants compared a more and less healthful version of the same product using the same label format, they were “very accurate in determining the healthier product and the one with fewer calories, regardless of the label format.” Moreover, when comparing products with different label formats, participants showed no performance differences but rated the task “easy” if they “could rely on the calorie declaration without considering the number of servings per container to derive the correct answer in all cases.”
“The main findings are that for single product evaluations, single serving per
container labeling and dual-column formats generally performed better and
scored higher on the label perception index than two servings, single-column
formats, including the control label,” concluded the study’s authors. “Another
main finding is that enlarging the font size for calories and removing ‘calories
from fat’ did not independently affect label usability as measured in this
study.”
