Courtesy: Mass. General Hospital
Simple, color-coded labels on food items in a hospital cafeteria appears to have helped more customer’s pay attention to the nutritional quality of their food which lead them to make better food choices, according to a new report in Preventive Medicine.
“Several small, experimental studies have suggested that ‘traffic light’ labels can be an effective method of promoting healthier choices, but there have been few real-world studies of customers’ perceptions and purchasing behaviors in response to this type of labeling,” said study author Lillian Sonnenberg, DSc, RD, LDN, MGH Nutrition and Food Service in a press release.
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) used surveys to track responses before and after the “traffic light” labels were implemented.
“Our results suggest that these labels are an effective method for conveying information about healthy and unhealthy choices and for prompting changes in purchasing behavior,” said Sonnenberg.
While many restaurants and fast food places are now posting the calorie content of food items and have fat, cholesterol and sodium content available upon request, researchers note, interpreting this information requires knowledge and skills that many do not possess.
MGH Nutrition and Food Service came up with an easier way by using a color coding system to help customers identify the nutritional value in food items.
• Green for the healthiest items, such as fruits, vegetables and lean meats
• Yellow for less healthy items
• Red for those with little or no nutritional value
Signage encouraged frequent purchase of green items, less frequent for yellow and discouraged purchase of red items.
Cafeteria cash registers were programmed to record each purchased item as green, yellow or red, starting three months before the labeling intervention began.
In the first round of surveys before the label change, 46 percent of respondents indicated that health/nutrition was an important factor in their food choices. Afterwards, that number jumped to 61 percent.
“While our results can’t give concrete information about customers’ nutritional knowledge, people were more likely to indicate that health and nutrition were important factors in their decision when the labels were in place, and those who noticed the labels were more likely to purchase healthy items,” said Sonnenberg.
The number of survey participants that reported that they looked at available nutritional information before a purchase doubled from 15 to 33 percent after the label change.
“Although we haven’t directly compared these “traffic light” labels to other systems, we can say that these labels appear to be more effective than the standard nutritional labeling available on packaged products. The strategy is simpler for customers to understand at the point of purchase and, once the appropriate labels for each item are determined, is relatively easy to implement,” said Sonnenberg.
