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Sodium Claims or Health Focused Messages Help Consumers to Identify Sodium Levels in Foods Better than the Nutrition Facts Table
Author(s) -
Schermel Alyssa,
L'Abbé Mary R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.124.1
Subject(s) - sodium , table (database) , high sodium , product (mathematics) , low sodium , food science , medicine , chemistry , mathematics , computer science , data mining , organic chemistry , geometry
The aim of this study was to determine whether consumers can properly classify sodium levels (low, moderate, or high) based on the Nutrition Facts table (NFt) alone and whether sodium focused messages influence these judgements. Participants from a national online consumer panel (n=3,437) were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 treatment conditions on mock cheese products. Treatment group 1 was shown a Nutrition Facts table (NFt) with typical levels of sodium and groups 2 to 5 were shown a NFt with a 25% reduction. Groups 3 to 5 were shown various additional sodium focused messages. Groups 1 and 2 made similar classification judgements, regardless of whether or not the product was higher or reduced in sodium. By comparison, groups 3 and 4 who were shown a “reduced sodium” claim in addition to the NFt classified products as lower in sodium (P<0.05). This effect was even greater when consumers were shown a one‐page sodium advisory message (P<0.05). These results indicate that Canadian consumers generally have a poor understanding of what constitutes low, moderate, or high amounts of sodium based on information from the NFt only. Sodium focused messages significantly improve consumer judgements. Funding Source: Dairy Farmers of Canada