OBJECTIVES: To determine how frequently lay consumers evaluate both the front label of a product package and other nutritional information on the back label of the package; whether the nutritional descriptors on the front label that concern fat affect consumer choice; to what degree information on the back label redirects this choice; and how well consumers understand the percent daily value on the new food label. DESIGN: Preliminary cross-sectional survey. SETTING: General community and university setting. PARTICIPANTS: Volunteer sample of 200 men and women. METHODS/ RESULTS: Participants were first asked to choose between two fabricated cookie packages, one with a "low fat" and the other with a "no saturated fat" front label. Eighty-four percent of participants made their product choice without turning the package to view the back label. Thirty-six percent chose the product with the low fat front label, while 64% chose the product with the no saturated fat front label. In contrast, when respondents were subsequently presented with two cake products that contained no front-label descriptors (which resulted in 100% of subjects turning the package to view the back label), 53% chose the product with a label indicating 6 g of total fat (none saturated), while 47% chose the product with a label indicating 4 g of total fat (all saturated). Thirty-two of the 94 respondents who chose the no saturated fat cookie (only viewing the front label and giving fat content as the reason for their choice) chose a cake product in which the fat was all saturated, based on back-label nutrition information. Finally, 56% of participants could not accurately use the new percent daily value component to calculate saturated fat content. CONCLUSIONS: The data from this pilot study suggest that consumers make product choices based on only viewing the front-label information; health claims on the front label that are related to fat do affect product choice; a choice made based on the information on the front label is potentially altered once the back label is viewed; and approximately one half of our population could not clearly understand the percent daily value. We conclude that current consumer choice may be overly influenced by industry-directed claims placed on the front of a product package.
OBJECTIVES: To determine how frequently lay consumers evaluate both the front label of a product package and other nutritional information on the back label of the package; whether the nutritional descriptors on the front label that concern fat affect consumer choice; to what degree information on the back label redirects this choice; and how well consumers understand the percent daily value on the new food label. DESIGN: Preliminary cross-sectional survey. SETTING: General community and university setting. PARTICIPANTS: Volunteer sample of 200 men and women. METHODS/ RESULTS:Participants were first asked to choose between two fabricated cookie packages, one with a "low fat" and the other with a "no saturated fat" front label. Eighty-four percent of participants made their product choice without turning the package to view the back label. Thirty-six percent chose the product with the low fat front label, while 64% chose the product with the no saturated fat front label. In contrast, when respondents were subsequently presented with two cake products that contained no front-label descriptors (which resulted in 100% of subjects turning the package to view the back label), 53% chose the product with a label indicating 6 g of total fat (none saturated), while 47% chose the product with a label indicating 4 g of total fat (all saturated). Thirty-two of the 94 respondents who chose the no saturated fat cookie (only viewing the front label and giving fat content as the reason for their choice) chose a cake product in which the fat was all saturated, based on back-label nutrition information. Finally, 56% of participants could not accurately use the new percent daily value component to calculate saturated fat content. CONCLUSIONS: The data from this pilot study suggest that consumers make product choices based on only viewing the front-label information; health claims on the front label that are related to fat do affect product choice; a choice made based on the information on the front label is potentially altered once the back label is viewed; and approximately one half of our population could not clearly understand the percent daily value. We conclude that current consumer choice may be overly influenced by industry-directed claims placed on the front of a product package.