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Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label

The Nutrition Facts (NF) label was recently updated and now includes the added sugars content in an effort to reduce added sugars consumption. This study investigated whether consumers wanted to access or avoid the added sugars content using an online experiment and five product categories (yogurt,...

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Autores principales: Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon, Ellison, Brenna, McFadden, Brandon, Prescott, Melissa Pflugh
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8007016/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33780506
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249355
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author Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon
Ellison, Brenna
McFadden, Brandon
Prescott, Melissa Pflugh
author_facet Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon
Ellison, Brenna
McFadden, Brandon
Prescott, Melissa Pflugh
author_sort Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon
collection PubMed
description The Nutrition Facts (NF) label was recently updated and now includes the added sugars content in an effort to reduce added sugars consumption. This study investigated whether consumers wanted to access or avoid the added sugars content using an online experiment and five product categories (yogurt, cereal, fruit juice, snack bar, ice cream). We recruited a sample of 490 U.S. adults (49% female; 73% White/Caucasian). Respondents were randomly assigned to an information treatment (simple or full) before making decisions on whether to access or avoid the added sugars content. The simple information treatment explained that added sugars information was now available on the NF label, while the full information treatment included additional details (e.g., how to interpret the added sugars content and associated diseases). After making the access or avoid decisions for each product category, respondents rated their likelihood of purchase for ten products (two per category). Rates of information avoidance were much lower than what has been observed in previous studies, and rates of avoidance did not vary by information treatment. The majority of respondents (75–87% across the five product categories) preferred to access the added sugars content. Still, we found some consumers preferred to avoid this information, with higher rates of avoidance for the ice cream product category. Additionally, we found significant differences in likelihood of purchase ratings between information accessors and avoiders. Respondents who chose to access the added sugars information exhibited healthier purchasing behaviors for all product categories; they were more likely to purchase low added sugars products and less likely to purchase high added sugars products relative to information avoiders. Given consumers’ demonstrated interest in accessing the added sugars content, it is important that the new changes to the NF label be broadly communicated to promote healthy eating behaviors.
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spelling pubmed-80070162021-04-07 Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon Ellison, Brenna McFadden, Brandon Prescott, Melissa Pflugh PLoS One Research Article The Nutrition Facts (NF) label was recently updated and now includes the added sugars content in an effort to reduce added sugars consumption. This study investigated whether consumers wanted to access or avoid the added sugars content using an online experiment and five product categories (yogurt, cereal, fruit juice, snack bar, ice cream). We recruited a sample of 490 U.S. adults (49% female; 73% White/Caucasian). Respondents were randomly assigned to an information treatment (simple or full) before making decisions on whether to access or avoid the added sugars content. The simple information treatment explained that added sugars information was now available on the NF label, while the full information treatment included additional details (e.g., how to interpret the added sugars content and associated diseases). After making the access or avoid decisions for each product category, respondents rated their likelihood of purchase for ten products (two per category). Rates of information avoidance were much lower than what has been observed in previous studies, and rates of avoidance did not vary by information treatment. The majority of respondents (75–87% across the five product categories) preferred to access the added sugars content. Still, we found some consumers preferred to avoid this information, with higher rates of avoidance for the ice cream product category. Additionally, we found significant differences in likelihood of purchase ratings between information accessors and avoiders. Respondents who chose to access the added sugars information exhibited healthier purchasing behaviors for all product categories; they were more likely to purchase low added sugars products and less likely to purchase high added sugars products relative to information avoiders. Given consumers’ demonstrated interest in accessing the added sugars content, it is important that the new changes to the NF label be broadly communicated to promote healthy eating behaviors. Public Library of Science 2021-03-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8007016/ /pubmed/33780506 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249355 Text en © 2021 Kim et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Kim, Elizabeth Jiyoon
Ellison, Brenna
McFadden, Brandon
Prescott, Melissa Pflugh
Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title_full Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title_fullStr Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title_full_unstemmed Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title_short Consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated Nutrition Facts label
title_sort consumers’ decisions to access or avoid added sugars information on the updated nutrition facts label
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8007016/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33780506
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249355
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