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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Healthy Body Weight Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #208363

Title: Nutrition marketing

Author
item Colby, Sarah

Submitted to: American Public Health Association Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2007
Publication Date: 11/8/2007
Citation: Colby, S.E. 2007. Nutrition marketing. [abstract] American Public Health Association Meeting, November 3-7, 2007, Washington, DC. Abstracts were not published.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Given the obesity epidemic, marketing of non-nutrient dense food has been debated as a policy issue. This research sought to determine how frequently nutrition marketing (health claims, nutrient content claims, or implied claims) is used on labels of foods containing high amounts (>20% daily value) of saturated fat, sodium, and/or sugar (operationally defined as >21grams sugar for fruit/milk based products and as >6 grams sugar for non-fruit/milk based products). All items with food labels (N=9,429) in one local grocery store were visually surveyed. Forty-five percent of products had nutrition marketing on the label. Sixty-eight percent of nutrition marketing was considered a nutrient content claim, 28% was considered an implied claim, and only 4% were FDA recognized health claims. Of those with nutrition marketing, 52% had high saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar content; high sugar content being the most frequently identified (12.57%, 22.18%, and 33.61%, respectively). The most commonly used nutrition marketing statements on products >20% saturated fat were "good source of calcium", "natural", "health professional recommended", "low/trans fat free", and "made with real…". The most commonly used nutrition marketing statements on products >20% sodium were "reduced/low fat", "health professional recommended", "reduced/low calories", "no preservatives", and "low/trans fat free". The most commonly used nutrition marketing statements on products >20% sugar were "good source of calcium", "reduced/low fat", "natural", "good source of iron", and "contains whole grains". The influence of nutrition marketing of products (with high saturated fat, sodium and/or sugar content) on consumer product choice is still unknown.