Dive Brief:
- Nearly one-third (31%) of surveyed Americans said they had changed their opinions about at least one dietary component in the past year, according to the International Food Information Council Foundations’ 2016 Food and Health Survey, "Food Decision 2016: The Impact of a Growing National Food Dialogue."
- Survey participants listed media headlines and articles at or near the top of the sources that influenced their opinions. Media was named a top source for generating respondents' less healthful view of enriched refined grains, saturated fat, added sugars, and low-calorie sweeteners, but a more healthful view of whole grains, plant-based proteins, and natural sugars.
- More Americans are also checking ingredients on product labels, now at 47% as compared to 40% in 2015.
Dive Insight:
When Americans check product labels, they may be checking for the absence of ingredients more often than the presence of others. More than one-third (35%) of respondents define "healthy" as meaning a food or beverage contains no or minimal amounts of certain dietary components, such as fat and sugar.
But fat is a component that has achieved many of these influential headlines in recent months, and opinions about saturated fat in particular may change. Saturated fat was long linked to heart disease and weight gain, but recent research threw those long-held assumptions into question. As a result, "diet" foods focused on reducing fat and calories for weight loss purposes have become less popular than "healthy" foods that focus on natural ingredients and lower amounts of sugar and salt.
Then again, no one is altogether sure what the term "healthy" should mean today. The FDA earlier this week allowed Kind bars to use the term "healthy" on their snack bar product labels again after sending a warning letter over a year ago. Along with that announcement, the FDA also said it would re-evaluate its 20-year-old definition of the term "healthy." Kind issued a petition last December that requested the FDA amend the definition.
While making the "healthy" claim could be an integral part of brand positioning, another option to stay ahead of any changes could be to highlight other tangible health-related benefits or functional ingredients. Concrete benefits and functional ingredients are less likely to be impacted if the FDA changes its definition, so manufacturers would face less risk of costly label changes if their products no longer fit in the regulated definition of "healthy."