12/10/24: Food Labels (Words Matter); Food Scoring, Worth it?; Last Chance to Order from Donut Season; 3 Things You Don't Want to Miss & more

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👀Substack: Food Labels - Words Matter

The next time you’re in the supermarket or even ordering on-line, take a look at some of the names of products, the words they put on the labels to describe them or even the colors of the packaging. Brands that use words like “skinny” or “thin” to catch the attention of people seeking to reduce calories. “Keto” and “paleo” for those following fad diets. How about words like “sustainable” or “regenerative” or even “climate smart” for people who think these products might be more beneficial to the environment? Using specific colors on packaging is also a way to subliminally attract certain customers….green for organic items, red and yellow for snack items that can be eaten quickly and are usually higher in fat or sodium.

The Nutrition Tea Substack unpacks some of this in her recent post: Food can just be food - by Shana Minei Spence

💯Food Scoring - Does it Matter?

Though this pilot study was published in 2021, it bears reading.

The effect of the nutri-score label on consumer’s attitudes, taste perception and purchase intention: An experimental pilot study - ScienceDirect

Theory:

“…the information provided on nutrition labels should make it easier to guide consumers towards healthier food choices and consumers also perceive the value of information provided by nutrition labels as important while purchasing products (Hoefkens, Verbeke & Van Camp, 2011). However, consumers may not fully understand nutrition labels and therefore not use them or be misunderstood (Grunert & Wills, 2007)….Studies have shown that simpler and more direct labels, such as the Nutri-score, are more effective in modifying food choices towards healthier decisions (Crosetto et al., 2020, Egnell et al., 2018).”

Background:

In 2017, the Nutri-Score label was selected to be the official nutrition label in France (Julia & Hercberg, 2017). In 2018, the Nutri-Score was also implemented in Belgium. Mid-2021, the Nutri-Score will be implemented in the Netherlands (NOS, 2019). The Nutri-Score is a five colour-coding label (dark green, green, yellow, orange, red) accompanied by a letter (A, B, C, D, E), providing a singular indication of the nutritional quality of food products (Julia et al., 2018)

Findings:

- “…integrating the Nutri-Score label on food packages did not modify cognitive responses of consumers towards these food products.”

-” …Even though consumers did notice the addition of the Nutri-Score label on the food products, the Nutri-Score label did not influence their behavioral beliefs.”

“…this study found that consumers did not have a higher purchase intention for food products with the Nutri-Score label compared to food products without the Nutri-Score label…”

3️⃣Things You May Have Missed

👩🏽‍🍳1. Substack: The Next Martha Stewart?

Will the next Martha Stewart be someone on TikTok or Instagram who already has hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers?

Which Hot Girl on TikTok Will Be Gen Z's Martha Stewart?

If you’ve read anything about Martha Stewart, you know her fame and fortune was a long time coming and a result of a lot of hard work, an eye for style and trends, and savvy business sense. Will someone be able to replicate that?

🛍2. Substack: Chris Stanton - Feeding Frenzy

Feeding Frenzy - by Chris Stanton - Stantonland

The expression about sharks is that most ‘…have to keep swimming to survive’…the same is true of food marketers, i.e. they have to keep innovating and creating new flavors and versions of legacy favorites to survive.

Chris Stanton writes about some of the innovations (or are they abominations?) like hot dog stuffed crust pizzas and a multitude of Oreo flavors. Food marketers have to come up with new ideas and keep changing things up in order to attract new customers and retain their faithful ones

🍞3. The UK (finally) Fortifies with Folic Acid

You know how the hot topic these days is things that are in our food but not in food in Europe/the UK? Here’s one (folic acid) that the US and Canada have had been adding to prevent neural tube defects, that the UK is just now allowing to be added to wholemeal flour.

Folic acid fortification of flour – the long wait is over! - British Dietetic Association (BDA)

“It has been announced by the Department for Health and Social Care and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that non-wholemeal wheat flour will now be fortified with folic acid from the end of 2026. This welcomed move, which has been in discussion since the 1990s, will reduce the risk of babies being born with neural tube defects and reduce nutritional deficiencies and health inequalities.”

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Thanks so much for reading “The Grocery Cart” 🛒 Newsletter. Always interested in any feedback you might have!