This year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated the nutrition facts label to highlight certain information, including added sugars, to help consumers make healthier food choices. A University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) study found that the label did not impact consumer beverage choices.
“We were interested in how effective the newly updated nutrition label was in terms of altering consumers’ choices — specifically, choices related to sugary beverages,” said Hayk Khachatryan, UF/IFAS food and resource economics associate professor.
“Juice catches some heat because of the sugar content, but now that added sugars are teased out on the label, consumers can differentiate between the natural sugars in juice and added sugars in soda,” said Brandon McFadden, University of Delaware assistant professor and lead researcher of the study. “I was curious if that actually mattered to consumers.”
The research used eye-tracking software in …..
Read more about how the Label Doesn’t Impact Beverage Choices on the Citrus Industry website.