A study showed how a nutrition rating system led shoppers to buy a more nutritious mix of products.
For two years, John Cawley and colleagues took the sales data on 102 categories of foods (60,000 brands) after the introduction of a nutrition rating system on supermarket shelves. This data was taken from 150 stores on a weekly basis.
After the introduction of the nutrition rating system, less nutritious food purchases fell by 8.31%. However, sales of nutritious foods did not change significantly.
The study shows that researchers evaluating nutrition information systems should not only focus on the sales of nutritious foods but on the entire shopping basket.
Read more at Cornell University