Simple nutrition labels help shoppers pick healthier food options

Most people struggle to pick the healthiest food at the grocery store. A new online study with 5,636 U.S. adult shoppers tested different label designs to see which one helps. The goal was simple: can these labels help you correctly choose the healthier option between two products? The results showed that adding specific nutrition information to positive labels made the biggest difference. Shoppers using these combined labels correctly identified the healthier choice far more often than those seeing only positive labels. Other designs like warnings for high nutrients or a spectrum of ratings helped less. This finding matters because it points to a clear way to guide choices at the store. The study looked at how different groups responded. Income, education, and race did not change the results. However, people with higher nutrition literacy saw better improvements than those with lower literacy. This suggests that while the labels work for everyone, understanding food labels helps even more. The Food and Drug Administration supports using these mandatory front-of-package labels to help consumers make better choices.