Cornell University study finds health labels can be misleading

A study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, including Professor Miguel Gomez and Pei Zhou, has found that food products marketed with health claims are often less nutritious than those without such labels. The analysis, published in ‘Nature Food’, examined nearly 150,000 new food and beverage products introduced to the US market over a ten-year period using data from Mintel.

Using the Nutrient Profiling Model developed by the UK’s Food Standards Agency, researchers evaluated the overall nutritional composition of products. The model penalizes high levels of sugar, sodium, saturated fats, and calories, while rewarding fiber, protein, and fruit or vegetable content.

The findings revealed that two-thirds of the newly introduced products analyzed had a less favorable nutritional profile, despite half of them carrying health-related claims on their packaging. Researchers noted that manufacturers often make recipe ‘compromises’ to support specific claims; for instance, beverages marketed as ‘low sodium’ frequently contained higher amounts of sugar to compensate for the change in flavor.