Abstract
Objective
This research sought to determine how often nutrition marketing is used on labels
of foods that are high in saturated fat, sodium, and/or sugar.
Design and Setting
All items packaged with food labels (N = 56,900) in all 6 grocery stores in Grand
Forks, ND were surveyed.
Main Outcome Measure(s)
Marketing strategy, nutrient label information, if the product was fruit/or milk based,
and target age.
Analysis
Frequency distributions were computed.
Results
Forty-nine percent of all products contained nutrition marketing and of those, 48%
had both nutrition marketing and were high in saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar (11%,
17%, and 31% respectively). Seventy-one percent of products marketed to children had
nutrition marketing. Of those, 59% were high in saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar
content, with more than half being high in sugar. The most commonly used nutrition
marketing statements were “good source of calcium”, “reduced/low/fat free”, and “food
company's health symbol”.
Conclusions and Implications
Nutrition marketing is commonly used on products high in saturated fat, sodium and/or
sugar and is more often used on products marketed toward children than products marketed
toward adults. Current food industry symbols may not be helping consumers select foods
low in saturated fat, sodium or sugar.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 22, 2010
Footnotes
Continuing Education Questionnaire available at www.sne.org/ Meets Learning Need Codes for RDs and DTRs 4000, 4020, and 4030.
Sarah Elizabeth Colby is now affiliated with the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Human Ecology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
Identification
Copyright
Published by Elsevier Inc.
