Health labels may deter people from buying sugary drinks, study finds

To investigate the possible effects of adding a health label to sugary drinks, Prof. Anna Peeters, Director of the Institute for Healthcare Transformation at the university, conducted an online experiment to examine the drink choices of almost 1,000 Australians aged between 18 and 35. According to the study, participants were recruited using online platforms from four states in Australia and represented a diverse range of socio-economic status and education levels.

Participants were asked to imagine that they were entering a shop or cafe or approaching a vending machine to purchase a drink, and they were then asked to choose between one of 15 bottles, with both sugary and non-sweetened options available. The drinks had either no label (control group) or one of four labels on sugary drinks: graphic warnings, text warnings, sugar information (including the number of teaspoons of added sugar) or a Health Star Rating—the national front-of-pack labelling system used in Australia and New Zealand.

According to the results, participants were far less likely to select a sugary drink when a front-of-pack label was displayed compared with no label, regardless of their level of education, age or socio-economic background. “Our findings highlight the potential of front-of-pack health labels, particularly graphic images and Health Star Ratings, to change consumer behaviour, reduce purchases of sugar-sweetened drinks, and help people to make healthier choices,” said Peeters.

According to Peeters, the question now is what kind of impact labels will have, on what she calls, the obesity epidemic. “While no single measure will reverse the obesity crisis, given that the largest source of added sugars in our diet comes from sugar-sweetened drinks, there is a compelling case for the introduction of front-of-pack labels on sugary drinks worldwide.”

The new research was presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity, held in Vienna in Austria from 23 to 26 May.

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