Industry use of ‘better-for-you’ features on labels of sugar-containing beverages

Public Health Nutrition

Caroline L Miller^1^2¹  Aimee L Brownbill^1^2²  Annette J Braunack-Mayer^1^3³ 

[1] South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute,Population Health Research,Adelaide,SA,Australia^2;The University of Adelaide,School of Public Health,Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building,Adelaide,SA,5005,Australia,^1;University of Wollongong,School of Health and Society,Wollongong,NSW,Australia^3

关键词: Sugar-sweetened beverages;    Marketing;    Advertising;    Food labels;    Health halo;   

DOI  :  10.1017/S1368980018002392

学科分类：卫生学

来源: Cambridge University Press

【 摘 要 】

Objective To examine the ways in which sugar-containing beverages are being portrayed as ‘better-for-you’ (BFY) via features on product labels. Design Cross-sectional audit of beverage labels. Setting Adelaide, Australia. Data on beverage labels were collected from seventeen grocery stores during September to November 2016. Subjects The content of 945 sugar-containing beverages labels were analysed for explicit and implicit features positioning them as healthy or BFY. Results The mean sugar content of beverages was high at 8·3 g/100 ml and most sugar-containing beverages (87·7 %) displayed features that position them as BFY. This was most commonly achieved by indicating the beverages are natural (76·8 %), or contain reduced or natural energy/sugar content (48·4 %), or through suggesting that they contribute to meeting bodily needs for nutrition (28·9 %) or health (15·1 %). Features positioning beverages as BFY were more common among certain categories of beverages, namely coconut waters, iced teas, sports drinks and juices. Conclusions A large proportion of sugar-containing beverages use features on labels that position them as healthy or BFY despite containing high amounts of sugar.

【 授权许可】

CC BY