4. Discussion
FOP, eating behavior
In the present study, 274 university students were randomly classified into two groups using a food selection test with and without TLF labeling to investigate whether TLF labeling would lead to healthier dietary choices. The nutrition label was created with a traffic light label based on the British traffic light label color scheme. Due to this, the participants in the nutrition label group were able to make healthy diet choices quickly without possessing a thorough knowledge of nutrition labels. The present study did not have any major biases because the allocation of participants was randomized and comparability was ensured. The results showed that the use of TLF labels resulted in the avoidance of popular dietary choices among young people and that the proportion of people who made healthy dietary choices was significantly larger in the labeled group than in the unlabeled group. In addition, the proportion of people who were conscious of the nutritional components of foods when making dietary choices was higher in the labeled group than in the unlabeled group. Additionally, by placing the TLF label on the FOP, participants also became conscious of the nutritional components that were not included in the TLF label.In addition, in the labeled group, the proportion of individuals who consumed a healthy diet at all meals was significantly higher in the labeled group than in the unlabeled group. In particular, the strongest effect of the label was observed at lunchtime, whereas the weakest effect occurred at breakfast. This could be attributed to the fact that the participants tend to choose light meals for breakfast in their everyday lives. When comparing lunch and dinner, the proportion of people who consumed red- and yellow-labeled meals for lunch was significantly lower (by more than 10%) in the labeled group than in the unlabeled group. Therefore, the timing of the choice of diet may also influence the awareness of healthy food choices. This study shows that the use of easy-to-understand nutrition labeling leads to healthier dietary choices among Japanese youth. This result seems to indicate the usefulness of the TL system applied in Western countries in Japan as well.Regarding the question of whether the presence of a TLF label influenced the awareness of nutritional components when making meal choices, the proportion of people who were aware of nutritional issues was significantly higher in the labeled group (by approximately 40%) than in the unlabeled group. An interesting thing is the presence of the TLF labels resulted in a significant difference in the proportion of people who were conscious of the nutritional components of protein and dietary fiber, which were not indicated on the TLF label, between the two groups. Therefore, TLF labeling influenced not only the nutritional component listed on the label but also the awareness of the nutritional components not included on this label, thereby influencing the general awareness of trying to consume a healthy diet.In the questionnaire-based survey on TLF labels conducted after the completion of this study, more than 90% of the participants answered that “TLF labels on the front of the packaging are effective”. Moreover, more than 75% of the participants answered that they “want manufacturers to put TLF labeling on the front of food packaging.” Approximately only 47% of the participants also answered that they use the current nutrient labeling in everyday life. Additionally, in the pre-test questionnaire, 68% of the participants answered that “the nutrient labeling on the back side of foods is difficult to understand.” The TLF label makes it easy to know the healthy amount of nutrients in a meal within a moment without the need for any calculations [This study has some limitations. First, the lasting effects of the long-term use of TLF labels could not be assessed because only the meals that participants intended to eat the following day were recorded in this study. Second, because we only included college students, the effects of TLF labeling on people of other age groups remain unknown. Third, the results may be skewed due to gender influences as the proportion of female students was high (70%). Fourth, the participants did not actually eat their choice of food; therefore, it is not known whether these study results can be generalizable to eating behavior in the real world. These limitations must be considered when interpreting the results.The TLF label feature reportedly signals participants’ brains to avoid red-labeled foods [To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the benefits of FOPL in 274 Japanese university students, and this randomized double-blind controlled trial was conducted online and entirely independently, without the participants contacting each other. Given that participants answered the survey simultaneously, this study also avoided the effects of different response times. Interestingly, the presence of a nutrition label increased people’s awareness of the nutrients listed on the label as well as of the nutrients not listed on the label. In addition, a previous study reported that FOPL can promote healthier food purchases [In general, consumers need to think relatively little when choosing and buying groceries as they generally do not have much time to do so; therefore, rapid processing and a simple FOPL has been shown to be effective [