Changes in meat and poultry nutrition labeling regulations: Implications for nutrition educators

Abstract

In January 1993 the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a rule requiring nutrition labels on most consumer-sized packages of processed meat and poultry products and permitting voluntary labels on most consumer-sized packages of fresh products. To provide the information that FSIS needed to make specific policy decisions, the authors conducted focus groups to explore whether consumers draw inferences about the nutritional value of products based on label presence alone, whether consumers prefer nutrition information for products in their raw or cooked form, and consumers' attitudes towards uniform descriptors like “low fat” and “lean.” The focus groups suggest that consumers often do infer that a product with a nutrition label is healthier than one without. Most consumers seem to prefer nutrition labeling on foods in their raw form, but many prefer the alternative — their cooked form. In addition, consumers like the idea of uniform descriptors, but find descriptors ambiguous and confusing. As consumers respond to new nutrition labeling requirements, nutrition educators should prepare to study, understand, and modify consumers' nutrition label use.