Dataset Information

The 5-CNL Front-of-Pack Nutrition Label Appears an Effective Tool to Achieve Food Substitutions towards Healthier Diets across Dietary Profiles.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels are considered helpful tools to help consumers making healthier food choices, thus improving their diet. In France, the implementation of a FOP nutrition label-the 5-Colour Nutrition Label (5-CNL)-is currently under consideration. Our objective was to investigate dietary profiles in a French adult population using the 5-CNL, and to assess its potential impact in improving the diet through substitution of foods. METHODS AND FINDINGS:Subjects included in the NutriNet-Santé cohort, who had completed three 24-h dietary records were included in this cross-sectional analysis. Mutually exclusive clusters of individuals were identified using the percentage of energy derived from foods of each of the 5-CNL colours as input variables. Three scenarios of substitution of foods for healthier alternative using the 5-CNL were tested. Food group and dietary intakes, socio-demographic and lifestyle data were compared across clusters using ANOVAs or Chi-square tests, as appropriate. We identified three mutually exclusive dietary profiles: 'Healthy' (N = 28 095, 29.3% of the sample), with high consumption of fruit, vegetables, whole cereals and fish; 'Western' (N = 33 386, 34.8%); with high consumption of sweetened beverages, breakfast cereal, cheese, fatty and sugary foods; 'Traditional' (N = 34 461, 35.1%), with high consumption of potatoes, bread, meat and dairy desserts. Overall, substitutions strategies led to an increase in the number of subjects reaching the recommended intakes in energy, macro and micronutrients. Increases were particularly high in the 'Western' pattern for lipids and saturates intakes: from 16.2% reaching the recommended amount for lipids (13.5% for saturates) to 60.6% and 85.7% respectively. CONCLUSION:The use of the 5-CNL as an indicator of food choice meaningfully characterizes clusters of dietary habits and appears as an effective tool to help improving the nutritional quality of the diet.

SUBMITTER: Julia C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4913953 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The 5-CNL Front-of-Pack Nutrition Label Appears an Effective Tool to Achieve Food Substitutions towards Healthier Diets across Dietary Profiles.

Julia Chantal C Méjean Caroline C Péneau Sandrine S Buscail Camille C Alles Benjamin B Fézeu Léopold L Touvier Mathilde M Hercberg Serge S Kesse-Guyot Emmanuelle E

PloS one 20160620 6

<h4>Background</h4>Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels are considered helpful tools to help consumers making healthier food choices, thus improving their diet. In France, the implementation of a FOP nutrition label-the 5-Colour Nutrition Label (5-CNL)-is currently under consideration. Our objective was to investigate dietary profiles in a French adult population using the 5-CNL, and to assess its potential impact in improving the diet through substitution of foods.<h4>Methods and findings</h4>S ...[more]

PMID: 27322033

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Project description:Front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labelling has received growing attention from public health authorities, as a tool to promote healthier diets in the population. Recently, the French Health law introduced the principle of implementing a FOP nutrition labelling system. A scientific proposal has put forward the 5-Colour Nutrition Label (5-CNL), a five-category colour-coded summary system supported by research suggesting that it is well perceived and understood in the population. Our objective was to investigate the impact of the 5-CNL on the nutritional quality of purchases in experimental supermarkets.Participants (n?=?901) were recruited using quota sampling between September and December 2015 and evenly distributed in three experimental conditions: 1) control situation; 2) Application of the 5-CNL on all food products in three specific sections: breakfast cereals, sweet biscuits and appetizers; 3) introduction of the 5-CNL accompanied by consumer information on use and understanding of the label. Main outcome was the nutritional quality of the shopping cart in the three sections combined, measured using the United Kingdom Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA score).Significantly higher mean nutritional quality of the purchased items per section were observed for the sweet biscuits category in the intervention combining the label?+?communication (overall FSA score 21.01 vs. 20.23, P?=?0.02). No significant effects were observed for the general mean over the three sections combined or other food categories. The results observed on purchase may be related to the high level of recall, self-reported and objective understanding of the label that were observed in the intervention groups as they are pre-requisites for use of a label in purchasing situations.These results suggest that the 5-CNL FOP nutrition label may have a limited impact on purchases, leading to healthier food choices in some food categories such as sweet biscuits.The trial was registered on Clinicaltrials.gov under the number NCT02546505 .

Project description:BackgroundFront of pack (FOP) nutrition labels are concise labels located on the front of food packages that provide truncated nutrition information. These labels are rapidly gaining prominence worldwide, presumably because they attract attention and their simplified formats enable rapid comparisons of nutritional value.MethodsEye tracking was conducted as US consumers interacted with actual packages with and without FOP labels to (1) assess if the presence of an FOP label increases attention to nutrition information when viewers are not specifically tasked with nutrition-related goals; and (2) study the effect of FOP presence on consumer use of more comprehensive, traditional nutrition information presented in the Nutritional Facts Panel (NFP), a mandatory label for most packaged foods in the US.ResultsOur results indicate that colored FOP labels enhanced the probability that any nutrition information was attended, and resulted in faster detection and longer viewing of nutrition information. However, for cereal packages, these benefits were at the expense of attention to the more comprehensive NFP. Our results are consistent with a potential short cut effect of FOP labels, such that if an FOP was present, participants spent less time attending the more comprehensive NFP. For crackers, FOP labels increased time spent attending to nutrition information, but we found no evidence that their presence reduced the time spent on the nutrition information in the NFP.ConclusionsThe finding that FOP labels increased attention to overall nutrition information by people who did not have an explicit nutritional goal suggests that these labels may have an advantage in conveying nutrition information to a wide segment of the population. However, for some food types this benefit may come with a short-cut effect; that is, decreased attention to more comprehensive nutrition information. These results have implications for policy and warrant further research into the mechanisms by which FOP labels impact use of nutrition information by consumers for different foods.

Dataset Information

The 5-CNL Front-of-Pack Nutrition Label Appears an Effective Tool to Achieve Food Substitutions towards Healthier Diets across Dietary Profiles.

Publications

The 5-CNL Front-of-Pack Nutrition Label Appears an Effective Tool to Achieve Food Substitutions towards Healthier Diets across Dietary Profiles.

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