Trial reportBMC public health2019
Acceptability and understanding of front-of-pack nutritional labels: an experimental study in Mexican consumers.
Trial report in BMC public health, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling and Its Impact on Food Industry Practices: A Systematic Review of the Evidence.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Acceptability of policies targeting dietary behaviours and physical activity: a systematic review of tools and outcomes.European journal of public health · 2022Pooled it
- Effect of food swap recommendations on the healthfulness and carbon footprint of grocery purchases in a naturalistic online store: A randomized parallel trial.PLoS medicine · 2026Trial
- Ecolabels and the Healthfulness and Carbon Footprint of Restaurant Meal Selections: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Front-of-Package Labels on Unhealthy Packaged Foods in India: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment.Nutrients · 2022Trial
- Objective understanding of front of pack warning labels among Mexican children of public elementary schools. A randomized experiment.Nutrition journal · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Effectiveness of Different Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels among Italian Consumers: Results from an Online Randomized Controlled Trial.Nutrients · 2020Trial
- Impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on consumer purchasing intentions: a randomized experiment in low- and middle-income Mexican adults.BMC public health · 2020Trial
- Association between use of nutrition labels and healthy eating efforts before and after labeling policy changes in Mexico, 2019-2021.Preventive medicine reports · 2026Article
- Consumer understanding, preferences and acceptance of front-of-pack labels in Thailand: foundational evidence for policy development.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Color and shape matter: how visual design features of front-of-package warning labels influence attractiveness perception, healthfulness perception and purchase intention.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2026Article
- Update and Comparative Analysis of Food Environment Policies in Mexico: Implementation of the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index in 2016 and 2024.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Which front-of-pack nutritional label (FOPNL) is most effective in promoting healthier dietary choices? An experimental study in Indonesia.BMJ public health · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Perceptions of non-sugar sweeteners and front-of-package labels among parents of preschool and school-aged children in Brazil.Public health nutrition · 2025Article
- Designing Front-of-Package Labels to Inform Consumers and Encourage Healthier Food Choices in Bangladesh: A Qualitative Study.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Exploring Consumer Understanding and Perceptions of Front-of-Pack Labelling of Foods and Non-Alcoholic Beverages in Kenya.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFront-of-package labelling is a cost-effective strategy to help consumers make healthier choices and informed food purchases. The effect of labels is mediated by consumer understanding and acceptability of the label. We compared the acceptability and understanding of labels used in Latin-America among low- and middle-income Mexican adults.
methodsParticipants (n = 2105) were randomly assigned to one of three labels: Mexican Guideline Daily Allowances (GDA), Ecuador's Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL), or Chile's Warning Labels (WL) in red. Label acceptability was evaluated through items regarding likeability, attractiveness and perceived cognitive workload. Objective understanding was evaluated by asking participants to select the product with the lowest nutritional quality among three products. We measured the time participants took to choose the product. Differences in label acceptability, understanding and time required to choose a product across labels were tested.
resultsCompared to the GDA, a higher proportion of participants liked the MTL and WL, considered them attractive, and with a lower perceived cognitive workload (p < 0.05). Participants had 4.00 (2.86-5.59) times the odds of correctly identifying the product with the lowest nutritional quality when using the MTL label and 4.52 (3.24-6.29) times the odds when using the WL, in comparison to the GDA. Time required to choose the product was lower for the MTL (Median: 11.25 s; IQR = 8.00-16.09) and the WL (Median = 11.94 s, IQR = 8.56-16.52) compared to the GDA (Median: 15.31 s; IQR = 10.81-20.21; p < 0.05). No differences were observed between the MTL and the WL.
conclusionsGDA had the lowest acceptability and understanding among the labels tested. The MTL and the WL were more accepted and understood, and allowed low- and middle-income consumers to make nutrition-quality related decisions more quickly. WL or MTL may foster healthier food choices in the most vulnerable groups in Mexico compared to the current labelling format.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.