Abstract
Several studies have identified Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels (FoPLs) as a promising strategy to improve the nutritional quality of consumers’ food choices and encourage manufacturers to offer healthier products. This study aims to fill the evidence gap regarding the most effective FoPL among the Portuguese population. In total, 1059 Portuguese participants were recruited through a web panel provider and asked to declare their intended food choices and to rank three sets of products (pizza, cakes and breakfast cereals) according to their nutritional quality, first in the absence of any labelling, and then with a FoPL displayed on-pack (five FoPLs tested). Finally, participants were asked to answer nine statements related to perceptions of FoPLs. Results showed that participants improved their food choices, depending on the FoPL and the food category. All FoPLs led to a higher percentage of correct responses on the ranking task compared to the no label condition. The Nutri-Score was among the FoPLs producing the greatest improvement across all food categories compared to the reference intakes (OR = 6.45 [4.43–9.39], p-value < 0.0001) and facilitating the highest percentage to correctly rank products according to nutritional quality. This study suggests that, among the available options, Nutri-Score is the most efficient FoPL to inform Portuguese consumers of the nutritional quality of foods and help them identify healthier options in mock purchasing situations.
Highlights
Introduction distributed under the terms andAccording to the Global Burden of Disease study, unhealthy diets are the leading risk factor contributing to the loss of healthy life years among the Portuguese population [1,2].Overweight and obesity are present in over 50% of the Portuguese population [3]
Improvement was always higher than deterioration, per Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels (FoPLs) and per food category, which varied between 1.9% and 5.2% depending on the label and the food category
Nutri-Score and the Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL) were the FoPLs with the higher percentages of Nutrients 2021, 13, x FOR PEER REVIEW
Summary
According to the Global Burden of Disease study, unhealthy diets are the leading risk factor contributing to the loss of healthy life years among the Portuguese population [1,2]. Overweight and obesity are present in over 50% of the Portuguese population [3]. Chronic diseases, which are associated with avoidable behavioural risk factors, and for which conditions of the Creative Commons. Several studies have shown that consumers, in general, are not able to fully understand and interpret food labels [5,6]. Data available for the Portuguese population support these results. A study, which was developed with the World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland), showed that 40% of Portuguese participants do not understand back of pack nutritional information [6]. The study found that FoPLs using colours led to better label comprehension
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