TOPLINE:

Spectrum food labels at the front of packs rating products from least to most healthy led to healthier food and beverage selections than labels that only highlighted the positive attributes of food or nutrition information (nutrition info) labels similar to those recently proposed by the FDA.

METHODOLOGY:

• The FDA recently proposed requiring nutrition info labels on the front of food packages to indicate the levels of saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars.
• Researchers conducted an online randomized trial between October and November 2024 to investigate whether front-of-pack labeling systems led to healthier food and beverage purchases than other proposed or existing labeling systems.
• They included adult US participants who did most of the grocery shopping for their households and had them shop from a simulated online grocery store with nearly 5300 products using a $35 budget.
• Products displayed one of six front-of-package labeling systems: “positive” labels that indicated only positive attributes, nutrition info labels similar to those proposed by the FDA, positive plus nutrition info labels, “high-in” labels flagging high levels of nutrients of concern, positive plus high-in labels, or “spectrum” labels rating products from least to most healthy.
• The primary outcome was the healthfulness of selected items, evaluated using scores from a nutrient profiling model on a 0-100 scale; higher scores were assigned to foods with lower density of calories, sugar, saturated fat, or sodium; higher fiber density or protein; or greater fruit, vegetable, nut, or legume content.

TAKEAWAY:

• The analysis included 5636 participants (mean age, 40.3 years; 60% female). The effects of labels on healthfulness did not vary by nutrition literacy, household income, or educational attainment of the participants.
• Spectrum labels improved overall healthfulness by 2.42 points compared with positive labels (P < .001) and also outperformed all other labeling systems with average differential effects ranging from -1.87 to -2.45 (P < .001).
• Spectrum labels led to healthier selections such as lower sodium density, more fiber, lower calorie density, and lower saturated fat density (P < .05 for all).
• Nutrition info labels and other labeling systems did not significantly improve healthfulness compared with positive labels.

IN PRACTICE:

“[The study] findings suggest that spectrum labels may be more promising than both existing positive labels and the FDA’s proposed labels for promoting healthier food purchases,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Anna H. Grummon, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

Participants were exposed to the labels only once and in an online setting only. Researchers developed a new spectrum label instead of using established systems such as Nutri-Score. The varying features of the labeling systems made it difficult to determine exactly why certain systems performed better than others.

DISCLOSURES:

This study received grants from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Three authors reported receiving grants from sources including the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.