A recent federal report shows that more Americans are using nutrition labels. That’s a good thing because reading the nutrition information has been shown to have health benefits. But not everyone is checking the nutrition facts the same way.
On May 21, USDA’s Economic Research Service released the “Who Regularly Uses the Nutrition Facts Label?” report. It found that, while far more American consumers are using nutrition label information than in the past, disparities exist across consumer groups by key demographics.
“The Nutrition Facts label is one of the Federal Government’s main tools for keeping consumers better informed about healthier food options,” according to the report, written by Brandon Restrepo, ERS research agricultural economist.
“Reading food labels is one of the strategies recommended in USDA’s [Dietary Guidelines for Americans] to meet nutritional needs and goals.”
Citing past research, the report noted reading nutrition labels correlates to health benefits. For example, consumers who read nutrition labels on packaged food had significantly lower daily calorie, sugar, fat and sodium intakes compared to consumers who didn’t. They also ate fewer away-from-home meals and spent less on eating out.
More Americans using nutrition facts
The report looked at data from American adult consumers surveyed from 2017 to 2020. Nearly eight in 10 survey respondents reported using nutrition labels sometimes, most of the time, or always. This was up compared to 62% from 2005 to 2006.
The report said the reason for the increased usage overall was unclear. There were some changes about the label underway around the same time, however.
In 2016, just prior to the beginning of the most recent survey, the Food and Drug Administration had made changes to the layout of the nutrition label. The change made certain key pieces of nutrition information like calorie counts and serving size much more prominent on the label. The implementation of this change began early 2018. However, the report noted that implementation of the change was not mandatory until Jan. 1, 2020 for larger food producers and Jan. 1, 2021 for smaller food producers.
Demographic disparities in label use
The report found distinct disparities in nutrition label use across different demographics.
“The most prominent gaps were those by sex, race and ethnicity, education, income and geographic area,” the report said.
Male consumers were 13 percentage points less likely than female consumers to use nutrition facts, according to the report. Similar gaps were seen in the results when specific nutrition claims like calorie count, sugars and other health claims were examined.
Among racial and ethnic groups, non-Hispanic White consumers reported using nutrition facts labels the least. The report found that different ethnic and racial groups paid attention to specific nutritional details as well.
For example, non-Hispanic Black consumers (11 percentage points) and Hispanic consumers of all races (10 percentage points) were more likely to regularly use information about sodium than non-Hispanic White consumers. Similarly, Asian, Native American and Hawaiian/Pacific Islander consumers were 11 percentage points more likely to use health claim information than non-Hispanic White consumers.
In the other demographics, the report found that consumers with less formal education (versus higher education), consumers with lower household incomes (versus higher incomes) and consumers living in nonmetropolitan (versus large metropolitan residents) reported using nutrition information less often than their counterparts.
“Improving Nutrition Facts label use — especially in groups with lower usage — could make it easier for consumers to choose foods that are better aligned with dietary guidelines,” the report noted.
More than just nutrition labels
The report also looked at what other label information consumers used.
“Health claims, the ingredients list and the expiration date are not noted on the Nutrition Facts labels themselves, but they are sometimes included on packaged food labels,” the report said. “Although these types of information have not been part of the Nutrition Facts label, people who regularly use Nutrition Facts labels may be likely to regularly use other information available on the food label.”
The most-used information was expiration date, with 92% of respondents saying they regularly use them. The next highly-ranked label elements were all portions of the nutrition label or the nutrition label itself.
Non-nutrition label information such as health claims, the “second column” — an optional column of nutrition facts that show the information for the entire package rather than a single serving — and the footnote that show percent of a nutrient as part of a 2000 calorie diet were not frequently used by respondents.
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