ST. LOUIS–Consumers often misinterpret low-carbohydrate front-of-packaging label claims to believe the products have health benefits and weight-loss qualities beyond their nutrition facts, according to researchers who evaluate 4,320 online consumers. The study, published in the September/October issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (Volume 42, Issue 5), found low-carbohydrate claims, in the absence of Nutrition Facts panels, led to more favorable perceptions about products’ helpfulness for weight management, healthfulness and caloric content.
However, the researchers found when the Nutrition Facts panels are available, “participants’ perceptions became more consistent with the nutrition profile of the products…. By showing the claims and the NF [nutrition facts] side-by-side, both pieces of information were equally accessible to participants as they answered the study questions," they said. “The presence of the NF, however, allowed participants to use this more diagnostic information to judge the product."
In this study, researchers at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition sought to determine whether low-carbohydrate claims might lead consumers to perceive products to have benefits that are not necessarily related to being low in carbohydrate. Using an online questionnaire, 4,320 consumer panelists rated products for their perceived healthfulness, helpfulness for weight management, and caloric content based on front-of-package-only conditions (nutrition claims versus no nutrition claims) and availability of Nutrition Facts panels.
“Because an individual packaged food product’s usefulness for weight management as part of an overall diet, its healthfulness, and total calorie content are not dependent solely on the amount of total carbohydrate it contains, the study demonstrated that consumers could misattribute benefits to products that claim to be low in carbohydrate," The researchers noted.
One limitation mentioned in this study by Dr. Judith Labiner-Wolfe, former consumer science specialist at FDA (now an evaluation specialist at the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health) and colleagues is that “the online venue for viewing the stimuli and answering the study questions may have fewer distractions than situations in which consumers make real product judgments, such as in a busy grocery store. Therefore, this study may overestimate the effect of the Nutrition Facts panel. Findings from this research are consistent with previous experimental studies that found participants misattribute health benefits to products with claims and that nutrition information has an independent effect on perceptions." The authors’ state, “although exposure to the Nutrition Facts has the potential for mitigating inappropriate benefits attributed to products claiming to be low carbohydrate, previous consumer research suggests that when a food product carries a front-of-package claim, consumers are less likely to turn the package over to look at the Nutrition Facts panel."
The article is “Effect of Low-carbohydrate Claims on Consumer Perceptions about Food Products’ Healthfulness and Helpfulness for Weight Management" by Judith Labiner-Wolfe, Ph.D.; Chung-Tung Jordan Lin, Ph.D; and Linda Verrill, Ph.D.