食品伙伴网报道，据美国食品导航网8月3日的消息称，美国饮食协会杂志上发表的一个最新的研究发现，注意营养标签的消费者与不注意营养标签的消费者相比，其饮食似乎更加健康。同时，研究者也提出建议：改变营养标签的使用方式。
美国饮食协会杂志（ Journal of the American Dietetic Association）的作者们要求提高营养标签的使用率，以便确保营养标签对饮食习惯形成影响。 本次对全美成年人具有代表性的抽样调查的研究中只有61.6%的受访者说，他们会常常检查营养成分表。而根据2005-2006年全国健康和营养调查（NHANES）的数据，他们还发现，在决定是否购买某一食品时，51.6%的人会看成分表，47.2%的人会检查份量，43.8%的人至少有时会考虑营养标签中的健康声称。
研究人员发现：使用标签的消费者和不使用标签的消费者最大的营养差异在于总能量、总脂肪、饱和脂肪酸、胆固醇、糖等方面，而对包装上的健康声称关注的消费者的总脂肪和饱和脂肪酸的量都较低。“虽然使用食品标签是改善饮食的因素，但仅仅使用标签将不会改变消费行为，并且最终导致健康状况的改善不够，”他们写道。
然而，作者得出结论认为，使用需要提高利率，以便有更多的对公众健康造成的影响。
本报道由食品伙伴网编译整理，仅供食品行业相关人士参考，详细内容以国外原文报道为准。
原文报道：
Nutrition labels need changing or campaigning to improve use, say researchers
By Caroline Scott-Thomas, 03-Aug-2010
Consumers who pay attention to nutrition labels are more likely to eat a healthy diet than those who do not, according to a new study, prompting researchers to recommend a shift in the way they are used.
The authors, writing in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, claim that rates of use need to be improved in order to ensure nutrition labels have an effect on eating habits; only 61.6 percent of the study’s nationally representative sample of US adults said they regularly checked the Nutrition Facts panel. Using data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), they also found that 51.6 percent looked at the ingredient list, 47.2 percent checked serving size, and 43.8 percent considered health claims at least sometimes when deciding whether to buy a food product.
The greatest nutrient differences between label users and non-label users were for total energy, total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugars; and users of on-pack health claims had lower reported values for total fat and saturated fat, the researchers found.
However, the study’s authors urged caution regarding to what extent use of nutritional information actually causes healthier eating.
“Despite food label use being associated with improved dietary factors, label use alone is not expected to be sufficient in modifying behavior ultimately leading to improved health outcomes,” they wrote.
Increasing use
Nevertheless, the authors concluded that rates of use need to be increased in order to have greater impact on public health.
“Low rates of label use also suggest that national campaigns or modification of the food label may be needed to reduce the proportion of the population not using this information,” they wrote.
“Possible changes to the current label that have been suggested include bolding calorie information, reporting the total nutrient intake for foods likely to be consumed in a single sitting, and using more intuitive labeling that requires less cognitive processing such as a red, yellow, and green ‘traffic light’ signs on the front of the label.”
Linguistic differences
The researchers also found that non-native English speakers were least likely to use nutritional information, although label use was seen to increase in line with foreign-born participants’ duration of residency.
“The food label alone is not expected to be sufficient in modifying behavior ultimately leading to improved health outcomes, but may be used by individuals and nutrition professionals as a valuable and motivating tool in our efforts to combat obesity and diet-related chronic disease,” they concluded.
Point of purchase pilot study
One possible way to increase consumer use of this information is to flag certain foods as healthier at the point of purchase. In a pilot study, also published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers monitored the food purchasing behavior of students during the middle of the fall 2008 semester at an urban university, and then tagged a range of healthier options with the Eat Smart program’s ‘Fuel Your Life’ logo. During the five-week period following the addition of these labels, the researchers found a 3.6 percent increase in sales of tagged items, although they underlined that this was not a statistically significant change.
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