The latest stats say 62 percent of U.S. adults report using the Nutrition Facts panel of the food label at least sometimes when deciding to buy a food product. Fifty-two percent look at the list of ingredients; 47 percent look at serving size; and 44 percent review health claims.1 So 38 percent of people never look at the Nutrition Facts panel of the food label?!? So how do they know what they're eating? 

The above data, published in August's Journal of the American Dietetic Association, was collected as part of the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Over 5,000 adults answered the food label questions and of those 5,000 people about 4,500 completed two 24-hour dietary recalls. This data allowed researchers to make the following conclusions about food label use:

  • Women and participants with greater education and higher income were more likely to report using food labels.
  • Non-Hispanic whites reported more frequent use of food labels.
  • Participants with limited English language skills had greatly reduced rates of label use, but label use among foreign-born participants increased with duration of residency.
  • Users of the Nutrition Facts panel were found to have lower reported values for total energy (calories), total fat, saturated fat, and sugars.
  • Users of the ingredient list had lower reported values for total fat, saturated fat, and sodium.
  • Users of the serving size had lower reported values for total energy (calories), total fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugars.
  • Users of the health claims had lower reported values for total fat and saturated fat.
  • Reported dietary fiber intake was found to be higher among label users for all sections of the food label.

Given that food labels seem to help people make healthier choices, why aren't more people using them? Here are some potential answers...

  1. They are they too difficult to understand/interpret. Test your ability to read a food label with this quiz.
  2. It takes too much time to look at the side of a package before throwing it in the cart. Really?!? Maybe key information like calories should be bolded.
  3. People do not want to know how unhealthy that packaged food might be. Unfortunately, it may very well be loaded with fat, sodium, and/or sugar.
What's your guess? How might we help more people use the food label to make healthier choices? Or maybe we should promote the use of fresh foods without labels like fruits, vegetables, and fish? While these foods aren't required to display the standardized food label, their nutrition information can be found here.

1Ollberding, N.J. (2010). Food label use and its relation to dietary intake among us adults.. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110, 1233-1237.