4.1. Overview
FOP
The present study measured the impact of FOP nutrition labels on parent/child food choices in a controlled setting where access to FOP labels and videos explaining the labels was randomly assigned. It was hypothesized that unexplained interpretive nutrient-specific summary indicator FOP labels would not generate significantly healthier food choices than would be made by parent/child pairs without access to these labels. This hypothesis was supported, suggesting that unexplained FOP labels may not be effective in guiding consumers toward healthier food choices.It was further hypothesized that explaining the presence and meaning of FOP labels on food packages would lead to healthier food choices, but this hypothesis was not supported. Although participants who saw the brief public-service-announcement-style video explaining the FOP labels did make healthier food choices, on average, than those who saw the labels without viewing the video, they did not make healthier food choices than those participants in the Control group (who saw neither FOP labels nor a video about the labels).Therefore, consistent with previous research indicating that some types of nutrition labels do not affect consumers’ food choices [There are many factors that influence food-related decision making (e.g., Symmank et al. [Front-of-package nutrition labeling remains a policy priority in the United States, and there is evidence from other countries that nationally mandated labels can have beneficial effects on public health nutrition (e.g., [It is also important to keep in mind that the consumer/demand side of the consumption equation is not the full picture of the effects that FOP labels could have on foods and beverages consumed. The producer/supply side of the equation is also important, and potentially has a higher impact as changes made in the food supply in response to FOP labels (i.e., food manufacturers reformulating products to have less sodium or sugar in order for their FOP labels to have more stars, fewer red lights, etc.) would benefit consumer health without requiring each individual consumer to opt-in to healthier choices. Research has demonstrated that this supply-side product reformulation has indeed been the result of FOP labeling interventions (e.g., [