This morning, Walmart announced a new FOP labeling program:
The logo will go on Walmart’s in-house brand products that meet the company’s nutritional criteria. These criteria are similar (but not identical) to those recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its recent report advising the FDA about what should be included in front-of-package labels.
Because the FDA has not yet acted on the IOM report, Walmart—like other retailers—is jumping the gun in doing its own thing. Its thing, however, is a substantial improvement over the Facts Up Front scheme put in place by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute.
In general, strict nutrition criteria for salt, sugar, and saturated fat exclude most supermarket products.
Walmart’s criteria are pretty strict. They exclude 80% of Great Value products.
In the cereal category, for example, only these Great Value items qualify:
- Extra Raisin Bran Cereal
- Raisin Bran
- Bran Flakes
- Crunchy Oat Squares
- Frosted Shredded Wheat
- Crunchy Nugget Cereal
- Toasted Wholegrain Oat Cereal
But these Great Value cereals do not:
- Cocoa Cool Cereal
- Cinnamon Crunchy Oat Squares Cereal
- Apple Blasts Cereal
- Sugar Frosted Flakes Cereal
- Toasted Corn Cereal
- Crisp Rice Cereal
- Fruit Spins Cereal
- Fruity Puffs Cereal
- Crunchy Honey Oats Cereal
- Vanilla Almond Awake Cereal
OK, but I wish the company had waited for the FDA to decide on a plan for FOP labeling (and I wish the FDA would get busy on that plan).
All of these schemes are ways to avoid putting negative information on package labels. No seller or retailer wants a red traffic light—”don’t buy me”—on its products, especially because research shows that stop signals work. Customers tend not to buy products marked with red traffic lights.
The IOM report concluded that negatives (“don’t buy”) worked better than positives (“buy me”) in guiding consumer choice. A more recent study confirms that finding.
Companies much prefer green-light systems like the one Walmart is doing.
The Walmart press release explains:
Walmart moms are telling us they want to make healthier choices for their families, but need help deciphering all the claims and information already displayed on products…Our ‘Great For You’ icon provides customers with an easy way to quickly identify healthier food choices…this simple tool encourages families to have a healthier diet.
But does it? Will Walmart customers buy more of the items marked with the logo instead of the other kinds? The company says it is doing the research. Will customers who buy products with the logo be healthier as a result?
I can’t wait to find out.
Addition, February 8: Here’s the way the New York Times dealt with this (I’m quoted).
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Sign in nowSo they are saying moms should get their nutritional advice from Walmart? Man are we in trouble. Parents need to take the time learn for themselves what is good for their family. In the words of health writer, Walter Bortz MD, “People don’t own their well being.”
http://escapetheherdblog.blogspot.com/2012/02/its-not-rocket-science.html
It’s a shame that companies can do what they want and what’s worse is that people trust them.
Thank you for bringing the discussion and education to the public.
Great takes, Marion!!! You’re so dang fast with these columns. That event just ended a little more than an hour ago.
I quite like the idea and the delivery.
Wal-mart has the clout to influence all suppliers to improve their offering and front-of-pack messaging.
All we have to do is tell Wal-mart to make it happen through bottom-up pressure, and they probably will because they don’t care about suppliers.
What Wal-mart care about are customers buying from Wal-mart week after week.
It’s time we voted with our dollars; it’s time for viva la revolution! (I know, I know. Colored cereal has this impact on me all the time).
I like Walmart.
Thanks for your synopsis of this news, Marion. I too think it’s an improvement over what FMI/GMA has put together, although I wish 100% fruit juice didn’t get such an easy pass.
I’m also wondering how they plan on identifying added sugars vs. natural sugars (a necessary step before determining whether added sugars constitute 25% of a product’s calories)!
Why shouldn’t people get nutritional information at the point of purchase? Sure, Wal-Mart and all other businesses are interested in people buying everything they stock, healthy or no, but is it any worse than getting information from official policies influenced by the food industry? Anyway, the new plan is not perfect, but it’s a start. Will want to follow this closely. Thanks, Marion!
I think that discerning between healthy foods and unhealthy foods is not really found in the labels, despite what we are told. The healthiest foods are not packaged and labeled. The best fruits and vegetables, and good quality cuts of meat, tend to be found outside of cardboard and plastic packs. Forget reading labels, look for food without labels.
The only label I’m interested in is the one that’s not there. Real food doesn’t need a label. Only processed food does. When I do buy something that needs/has a label, the one I look at first is the ingredients. Then the grams of carbohydrates. Beyond that, all information is irrelevant–to me. I don’t care if it’s there or not–it doesn’t influence my decision as to whether or not to buy it. But that’s me. I need information, not guidance.
Real, healthy food is fashion food, pure and simple. WalMart can attempt to label it but we will always invoke snob appeal to keep moving the goal post, to shut them out of our tres chic foodie notions. We can change our fads faster than they can dry the ink on their new labels. Ha!
Interesting news.
This program is ridiculous and unnecessary if anyone really cares about healthy eating. No packaged, processed foods should be marked as “healthy.”
Certainly, no packaged cereals should be promoted as healthy eating.
So if WalMart is all into nutrition now, why did I just throw my hands up in disgust shopping at the WalMart supercenter 1/2 mile from my house, looking for fresh kale (moldy), fresh beets (beets spongy, greens limp), bok choy (limp all but the ends which were dry), apples (wrinkled and spongy), snap peas (large and woody), red cabbage ( outer 3 layers limp and wrinkled, I quit pulling off layers after 3). How about some REAL food that’s still in good shape to eat??? The REAL food doesn’t need labels, it just needs better care than WalMart is giving it.
I am so happy to find your blog tonight. I don’t know why I never stumbled across it before! Gotta love the internet. Anyway, I like this new initiative by Walmart. I am your typical Trader Joe’s/Whole Foods/Earthfare/Harris Teeter shopper. I seek organic. I seek real. But I also live on a budget, so I seek out cheap vegetables. I make a once-a-month trip to our Charleston Super Walmart to grab ridiculously cheap frozen veggies and canned pumpkin. As much as I love the prices, it kills me to watch people fill their carts with junk at normal prices. PopTarts, Toastal Streudal, etc. I literally bounce around with extreme joy buying steamed veggies at $1.50 a pop when they cost triple that at my normal grocer. I don’t want veggies to go up in price at Super Walmart…but if they can point out how these foods are the best options for people, I’m all for it.
[...] Food Politics » Walmart’s new front-of-package “buy me” logo. [...]
[...] her blog, Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health and [...]
It is slightly disturbing that Walmart is making nutritional claims. And even worse People are so misinformed about food that they will believe whatever is presented from a “trusted” source. It is just too bad that now Walmart will be their information source. The FDA should really get a move on.
As an RD, I used to give grocery store tours and we’d never get out of the cereal aisle. While I agree that food companies and their products are intended to be sold to consumers, I am actually pleasantly surprised that Walmart took this initiative (even though the FDA is lagging). This is an example of big business changing their policies because of consumer demand (and falling closely to the anniversary of Let’s Move). Now only if their criteria could helpfully include “shopping around the perimeter of the grocery store” which are where most single ingredient foods are located.
What I want to see NOT another lie, or misleading tactics by Walmart or others. I want FDA/USDA get off their butts and label all food with a NON-GMO to attract my eyes when I walk through any store isles, not even behind the containers or on top of the box, so we don’t need to reach to any of MONSANTO GMO food. Wake up mothers or readers as you might start with (buy me )another form of poison, GO for this Walmat – NON-GMO, I dare you.
[...] …and Marion Nestle examines its validity. [Food Politics] [...]
[...] is often critical of large food companies and the products they sell, offered qualified support, writing on her blog this week that the company’s criteria were “pretty strict,” and far better than the criteria [...]
[...] and will eventually work with suppliers to get the label onto their products as well.On her blog, Nestle questioned the effectiveness of these types of labeling programs, saying that they are [...]
[...] posted, and conveniently also found a blog post on Food Politics addressing the same topic: Walmart’s new front-of-package ”buy me” logo. What these articles discuss is Walmart’s new labeling initiative, the bright green, [...]
As a great fan of organic food and healthy living I have to say that these labels are very helpful as far as choosing the right products is concerned. Even though the best choice for me will always be the local farmer I do believe that Walmart’s initiative in this particular area can really contribute to increase its customers’ awareness of what is healthy and what should be avoided. The truth is that the primary barrier to trying organic products is still their price and that’s why I think competition is needed more than ever which can only be achieved by introducing more and more certified products in our stores.
Much to the chagrin of many, I see parallels btwn Wal-Mart ad Whole Foods. This reminds me of WF’s “Health Starts Here” stickers on certain deemed healthy foods.
I get suspicious any time a company or industry voluntarily decides to take action before the government enforces them to, and this time is no different. Sadly, I’m not convinced that the government feels motivated to define their own FOP guidelines since the industry has developed their own.
Terrible. Just terrible. Frosted Shredded Wheat is “Great for You”????? Give me a break. Everyone would be a lot better off if they avoided processed breakfast cereals altogether. I grew up eating so-called healthy breakfast cereals, like Heritage Flakes for example, and I had terrible IBS (and believe me, that was the tip of the iceberg). Now that I don’t eat that crap, my digestion is perfect.
Another reason I don’t hate Walmart. It’s not an ideal world and we will probably always have corporate beasts. As it is, they have so much power to create good change.
[...] …and Marion Nestle examines its validity. [Food Politics] [...]