Research Original Research| Volume 117, ISSUE 9, P1366-1374.e6, September 2017

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No Fat, No Sugar, No Salt . . . No Problem? Prevalence of “Low-Content” Nutrient Claims and Their Associations with the Nutritional Profile of Food and Beverage Purchases in the United States

Published:March 15, 2017DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.01.011
No Fat, No Sugar, No Salt . . . No Problem? Prevalence of “Low-Content” Nutrient Claims and Their Associations with the Nutritional Profile of Food and Beverage Purchases in the United States
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      Abstract

      Background

      Nutrient claims are a commonly used marketing tactic, but the association between claims and nutritional quality of products is unknown. The objective of this study was to examine trends in the proportion of packaged food and beverage purchases with a nutrient claim, whether claims are associated with improved nutritional profile, and whether the proportion of purchases with claims differs by race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status.

      Methods

      This cross-sectional study examined nutrient claims on more than 80 million food and beverage purchases from a transaction-level database of 40,000 US households from 2008 to 2012. χ2 Tests were used to examine whether the proportion of purchases with a low/no-content claim changed over time or differed by race/ethnicity or household socioeconomic status. Pooled transactions were examined using t-tests to compare products’ nutritional profiles overall and by food and beverage group.

      Results

      Thirteen percent of food and 35% of beverage purchases had a low-content claim. Prevalence of claims among purchases did not change over time. Low-fat claims were most prevalent for both foods and beverages (10% and 19%, respectively), followed by low-calorie (3% and 9%), low-sugar (2% and 8%), and low-sodium (2% for both) claims. Compared to purchases with no claim, purchases with any low-content claim had lower mean energy, total sugar, total fat, and sodium densities. However, the association between particular claim types and specific nutrient densities varied substantially, and purchases featuring a given low-content claim did not necessarily offer better overall nutritional profiles or better profiles for the claimed nutrient, relative to products without claims. In addition, there was substantial heterogeneity in associations between claims and nutrient densities within food and beverage groups.

      Conclusions

      Variations in nutrient density by claim type and food and beverage group suggests that claims may have differential utility for certain foods or nutrients and, in some cases, may mislead about the overall nutritional quality of the food.

      Keywords

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      Biography

      L. S. Taillie is a research assistant professor, Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and a Fellow at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

      Biography

      S. W. Ng is an associate research professor, Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and a Fellow at the Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

      Biography

      Y. Xue is a senior data scientist, Duke-UNC USDA Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research, Duke University, Durham.

      Biography

      E. Busey is a research assistant, Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

      Biography

      M. Harding is an associate professor of Economics and Statistics, University of California, Irvine.

      Article info

      Publication history

      Published online: March 15, 2017
      Accepted: January 12, 2017
      Received: July 23, 2016

      Footnotes

      Supplementary materials: Tables 1 and 2 and Figures 5 and 6 are available at www.jandonline.org. Podcast available at www.jandonline.org/content/podcast

      STATEMENT OF POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

      FUNDING/SUPPORT This work was supported by a grant from Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and by the Carolina Population Center (CPC P2C HD050924). Data for this study were provided by the Duke-UNC USDA Center for Behavioral Economics and Healthy Food Choice Research through third party agreements with the US Department of Agriculture and IRI (Information Resources, Inc). Any opinions, findings, recommendations, or conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Research Service, US Department of Agriculture. The analysis, findings, and conclusions expressed in this paper also should not be attributed to IRI. This research was conducted in collaboration with US Department of Agriculture under a third-party agreement with IRI.

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.01.011

      Copyright

      © 2017 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

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      Linked Article

      • Erratum
        Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsVol. 118Issue 6
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          In the article “No Fat, No Sugar, No Salt . . . No Problem? Prevalence of ‘Low-Content’ Nutrient Claims and Their Associations with the Nutritional Profile of Food and Beverage Purchases in the United States,” published in the September 2017 issue of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the authors and web address listed for reference 15 (p 1373) are incorrect. Reference 15 should read as follows: Muth MK, Sweitzer M, Brown D, et al. Understanding IRI household-based and store-based scanner data.
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