Food Products Use of Voluntary Health- and Nutrition-related Claims

Voluntary health- and nutrition-related claims by food companies were present on 43.1 percent of new products introduced in 2010. Health- and nutrition-related claims such as "low fat", "low cholesterol" or "high fibre" potentially influence consumer purchases and can lead companies to reformulate their less healthy products to qualify for the claims; hence, it is important to understand food companies' adoption of these claims. This book tracks health- and nutrition-related claims on new U.S. food and beverage products from 1989 to 2010 and delineates the claims by product category and type of claim. Over the 2009 to 2010 period, the sales and average nutrient content of all new food and beverage products carrying at least one of the top ten health- and nutrition-related claims is also analysed.