Researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have found that combining taxes on sugary drinks with added messaging on price tags further discourages parents from wanting to buy sugary drinks for their children. Currently, over 60 countries and smaller jurisdictions around the world have levied taxes on sugary drinks in an effort to curb their consumption, yet these beverages […]
Findings from a new study in PLOS Medicine conducted by researchers from UNC-Chapel Hill, Stanford University, and the University of Edinburgh indicate that warning label and tax policies effectively reduce purchases of red meat-containing items, such as burger patties, pepperoni pizza, and ham luncheon meat. Consumption of red meat has gained attention as a nutrition […]
The majority of breakfast cereals in South Africa feature child-directed marketing strategies on their packaging, according to a new study in Public Health Nutrition. In an analysis of over 200 breakfast cereals, researchers also found that breakfast cereals with child-directed marketing contained significantly more total sugar and less fiber than cereals without child-directed marketing. South […]
Despite extensive product reformulation after Chile began requiring warning labels on the front of less-healthy food and drink packages, Chilean consumers saw no significant change in food and beverage prices associated with the policy in the first year and a half. This was the main finding of a new study from researchers at Universidad Adolfo […]
Two recent studies conducted by researchers from the Global Food Research Program at UNC-Chapel Hill and the University of Chile have found that in the first phase of Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising, consumers’ beverage purchases contained less sugar and more non-nutritive sweeteners (e.g., Aspartame, Stevia, or Sucralose), but overall beverage sweetness stayed […]
A new study published this month in the journal Food Policy finds that Peru’s food and beverage industry experienced no significant job or wage losses after the country began taxing sugary drinks and putting warning labels on the front of unhealthy food and beverage packages prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Peruvian government implemented these […]
On Thursday, Sept. 29, Dr. Barry Popkin testified at a special U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) public meeting in support of policies to improve the American diet and diet-related diseases. He joined six other consumer, research, government, and industry representatives who were invited to comment before an Independent Expert Panel as part of an […]
A new study from South Africa comparing three different front-of-package (FOP) labeling schemes found that a nutrient warning label helped more participants correctly identify unhealthy products and more strongly reduced their intention to purchase those products, compared to a “multiple traffic light” label and a Guideline Daily Amounts label. These findings, published in Appetite, come […]
A study published today in PLOS ONE found that for Colombian adults, nutrient warning labels work better than two other common front-of-package (FOP) label types for discouraging consumption of ultra-processed foods. The experiment Researchers at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and UNC-Chapel Hill conducted a study involving over 8,000 Colombian adults. In this experiment, each participant […]
A study published this week in PLOS Medicine is the first to examine in a realistic store setting whether pictorial health warnings on sugary drinks have an impact on which beverages parents choose to buy for their children. For this randomized trial, parents of children ages 2–12 years were given a shopping task in the UNC Mini Mart — a […]
In a new study published in PLOS ONE, Drs. Arantxa Colchero, Guillermo Paraje, and Barry Popkin explore the possible impacts of a Chilean tax levied on products that currently carry warning labels and other regulation under the Law of Food Labeling and Advertising. The country has had a sugary drink tax in place since 2014, […]
The latest evaluation of Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising finds that under Phase 1 of the law’s implementation, Chileans purchased significantly fewer calories, sugar, saturated fat, and sodium than would have been expected had the law and its regulations not gone into effect. The study, published in the August issue of The Lancet Planetary Health, combined data on household food shopping […]
Research has long shown that sugary beverages – sodas, juices, sports drinks, sweetened coffees and more – are closely associated with adverse health outcomes such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity, and their consumption and popularity increased dramatically during the last half of the 20th century. Multiple countries have enacted policies to help reduce the […]
New research from the Global Food Research Program at UNC-Chapel Hill finds that the food and beverage sector in Chile did not face significant job losses or wage decreases 18 months after implementation of its food labeling and advertising law. These findings counter common food and beverage industry claims that healthy food policies, such as […]
In collaboration with Vital Strategies, a leading global public health organization, the Global Food Research Program at UNC has published ‘What’s in Our Food? A guide to introducing effective front-of-package nutrient labels.’ The new guide assists countries in taking up this cost-effective, high impact strategy to combat obesity. On Sept. 17, Barry Popkin, PhD, participated […]
Mandatory nutrition warning labels on packaged junk foods may lead manufactures to reformulate their products with less sodium and sugar, exposing consumers to fewer harmful nutrients in their diets. In new research published in PLOS Medicine, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Chile found there were important […]
A study by our GFRP team & our Chilean collaborators, published 11 Feb 2020 in PLOS Medicine, finds that Chile’s Law of Food Labeling and Advertising, implemented in 2016, was followed by a significant 23.7% decline in purchases of sugary drinks. This research, following changes in purchases of over 2000 households in Chile, is the […]
The Peruvian government has issued a final Advertising Warnings Manual to require warning labels on packages of and adverts for foods that contain high levels of sugar, saturated fat, and sodium, as well as those containing trans-fat. A letter of congratulations to the Peruvian Government from various top scientists, researchers, and professionals in the areas […]