Journal Article

The Effect of Front-of-Pack Nutritional Labels and Back-of-Pack Tables on Dietary Quality

Rønnow, Helene Normann

2020

Overview

A healthy diet is important to prevent lifestyle diseases. Food labels have been proposed as a policy tool to improve the healthiness of food choices, as they provide information about nutritional content and health attributes which may otherwise have been unknown to the consumer. This study investigates the effect of food labels with different formats on dietary quality by using home-scan panel data and difference-in-difference methods to compare the change in dietary quality over time for households that start to use food labels with households that do not use labels. I find that the use of front-of-pack (FOP) nutritional labels increases overall dietary quality, which is driven by reduced intake of added sugar and increased intake of fiber. The use of back-of-pack (BOP) nutritional tables does not influence dietary quality. There is no additional benefit to overall dietary quality by using both labels. However, the results indicate that there could be a benefit of using both labels on certain nutrients. The results imply that additional policies are needed to supplement food labels in order to improve dietary quality.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,MDPI
• Subject: added sugars / Carbohydrates / Choice Behavior / Consumer Behavior / Consumers / Diet / Diet, Healthy / Dietary Fiber / Dietary Sugars - adverse effects / Food Labeling - methods / Food Packaging / Food products / food quality / Grain / Health Behavior / healthy diet / Humans / information / issues and policy / Labeling / Life Style / lifestyle / Logos / Longitudinal studies / nutrient content / Nutrients / Nutrition / Nutrition Policy / Nutritional Physiological Phenomena - physiology / Nutritive Value / Objectives / Quality / Studies