Demystifying the Food Label – Morning Sign Out at UCI

Written by Valerie Nguyen and Edited by Mehr Bawa

While shopping at the grocery store, you may be drawn toward the more delicious-looking items. You may even look at the food labels to be more health conscious, picking items that market themselves as “multigrain” or “low-fat.” These claims, however, are often marketing tactics aimed to capture your attention rather than convey the truth.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for regulating how food is labeled in the United States. However, the FDA’s regulations enable manufacturers to make certain claims about the nutrition content of their products; these claims do not necessarily have research to defend their implications about maintaining health [1]. This is nutrition marketing, where manufacturers use health information to better advertise their food or beverages [1]. In one study, researchers found that out of 56,900 labels, 49% of the labels contained nutritional claims [1]. 48% of the products with such nutritional claims were also high in saturated fat, sodium, and/or sugar [1]. This can be misleading, considering research has also shown that health claims in labeling tends to influence people into believing that an item is healthier than it might be [2]. This is evident from another study, which tested patient comprehension of food labels using general comprehension questions as well as mathematical applications of the labels. While 89% of the patients in this study reported using food labels, only 69% were able to answer the questions regarding the food labels correctly [3]. While lower comprehension of the food labels is correlated with lower literacy and numeracy skill, even some individuals with higher literacy skills struggled, signaling the necessity of simplifying food labels [3].

The next time that you are struggling in the grocery store, remember these general tips. When viewing the ingredient list, the first three ingredients may be the best indicator of what most of the product is composed of [2]. Furthermore, manufacturers may use smaller serving sizes to give the illusion that the food is healthier than it is. Use the nutrition label to multiply the serving size based on your personal average consumption instead [2]. Lastly, while this is not comprehensive, here are some keywords to keep in mind while encountering nutritional advertisement. For example, “multigrain” means that the product has more than one type of grain, while “made with whole grains” is not necessarily significant unless it is a major component of the ingredient list [2]. “No added sugar” can also be misleading since some products already naturally contain high amounts of sugars [2]. Finally, “low-fat” can often mean that because there is less added fat there may be more sugars to compensate for in the taste [2].

In a sample taken of the adult population, 61.5% of adults stated that they used the nutritional fact labels when deciding on what to purchase, 51.6% used the ingredient list, 47.2% used serving size, and 43.8% used health claims [4]. It is important to understand how to read these food labels because they can go towards helping you to live a healthier lifestyle. Despite this, many who did report using food labels to influence their purchasing decisions were mostly individuals of higher education and income [1] [4]. In order to aid the general public health and promote healthier eating, food labels must therefore become more accessible and easy to understand.

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