New research published in the journal Food Policy suggests that labelling foods as “healthy” may discourage Americans from purchasing those foods.
The study included 308 adults in the US. Participants were divided into groups that were shown different labels for a package of strawberry Greek yogurt. Then, the participants were asked how much they were willing to pay for the yogurt. The different labels included a plain label as a control, a “healthy” label, a “great taste” label, and a “healthy + great taste” label. The FDA is currently considering whether to require labels on foods, including labels that state whether the foods are designated as healthy by the FDA, and the goal of this study was to see whether labelling a food as healthy affects consumer spending choices.
The results showed that participants were willing to spend 18% less on the yogurt labelled “healthy” compared to the control yogurt with a plain label. Participants were willing to spend 25% less on the yogurt labelled both “healthy” and “great taste” compared to the control. However, the “great taste” label by itself had no impact on how much consumers were willing to spend compared to the control.
The authors noted that simply labelling a food as “healthy” seemed to backfire in terms of consumer spending. This could be for a few reasons; consumers may associate healthy foods with poorer taste, or they may question what qualifies a food as “healthy” and doubt the validity of the label. Interestingly, when the “healthy” label was accompanied by the following text, the negative impact was negated: "The product you have just observed features a 'healthy' symbol. This label indicates that the product meets the FDA's proposed criteria for being designated as 'healthy,' which specifically requires the product to be low in saturated fat, added sugar and sodium." Eating a healthy diet is an important part of heart health as well as overall health, and making healthier choices at the grocery store could impact the prevalence of many chronic diseases and heart conditions.
Sources: Food Policy, Science Daily
