By: Hilary Thesmar, PhD, RD, CFS, Chief Food and Product Safety Officer and Senior Vice President Food Safety, FMI
Shoppers want to eat well, but the idea of eating well is unique to each person and each household. Eating well could mean following a specific diet, trying the latest food trend or meeting medical needs through food. Often, in order to eat well, shoppers rely on product labels and signage on store shelves to get information that will help guide their eating-well desires.
6 Product Label Claims
FMI’s Power of Health and Well-being 2020, a compilation of health and well-being research from several reports, finds that shoppers seek out about six different front-of-package claims when purchasing food products. Package claims with growing consumer interest include:
- Certified organic.
- Fair trade, not bioengineered.
- Gluten-free.
- Grass-fed.
- Certified humane.
- Low(ers) cholesterol.
Retailer Contributions to Health and Wellness 2019, which surveys food retailers about their health and wellness initiatives, finds the following as the top six key food attributes identified on store shelves, according to food retail survey respondents:
- Organic (97%).
- Gluten-free (93%).
- Local (80%).
- Low sodium (60%).
- Heart healthy (60%).
- Kosher (57%).
Evolving Shelf Identifications
It’s clear some of these labeling needs and key food attributes align, but there is room to broaden in-store signage to better meet shoppers’ changing desires. To that end, it’s interesting to note the new shelf identifications offered by food retailers are:
- Cage free (40%).
- Diabetes management (37%).
- Digestive health (33%).
- Fair trade (30%).
- Brain function (27%).
- Immune function (23%).
- Bone health (23%).
- Athletic performance (13%).
These new shelf identifications aim to help shoppers in their eating well efforts. Shoppers already see food retailers as on their side in their efforts to meet their ideal of eating well and this expanded list of emerging shelf identifications shows retailers are committed to this role and prepared to offer a wide variety of products to assist shoppers.
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