Added sugar labels have little impact on our shopping choices

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-08-26 04:00

Australia; New Zealand; NSW; VIC

Photo by Haley Owens on Unsplash

A list of proposed added sugar labels for everyday grocery items probably wouldn't have much impact on our likelihood of buying them, according to Australian research. The team randomised groups of Aussie parents to complete online surveys asking them to choose between grocery items such as cereals and yoghurts. Each group was shown a different added sugar labelling format, such as listing sugar in the ingredients, a 'warning' label, or a 'teaspoons of sugar' calculation. The researchers say there were no consistent impacts on purchase choices for any of the label options. They add that nutrition labelling policies should come with a host of other interventions to influence the behaviour of both shoppers and manufacturers.

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conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Deakin University, University of Auckland, George Institute for Global Health

Funder: This project was funded by the Deakin University Faculty of Health Health reseArch Capacity building grant scHeme (HAtCH) scheme (MRB). https://www.deakin.edu.au/ The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. All authors are researchers within the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health (RE-FRESH) (APP1152968). NHMRC did not fund the research directly but it provides backbone funding to the research group (for training, communications, etc). The opinions, analysis, and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the NHMRC.

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