Food for Thought

Food for Thought

Labeling Food With 'Stop' or 'Go' Colors Might Spur Healthier Diet

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston conducted a two year long health study to see if labeling food packages in the cafeteria differently would have an effect on patron purchasing patterns.







In an effort to prompt healthier snack and meal choices, item displays were "adjusted to have traffic light-style green, yellow and red labels based on their level of nutrition...fruits, vegetables and lean sources of protein got green labels, while red ones appeared on junk food" (Randy Dotinga, HealthDay News). The findings were positively successful, resulting in a 12% higher sell-through rate of healthier food items and a 20-39% drop of the unhealthiest foods. Dr. Anne Thorndike, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School states, "these findings are the most important of our research thus far because they show a food-labeling and product-placement intervention can promote healthy choices that persist over the long term, with no evidence of 'label fatigue.'" The strategies used in this study have powerful potential to be introduced beyond the food-service environment and we anticipate the day when traffic light labeling becomes more ubiquitous.

Posted by RxOrganics