Do “no added sugar” labels impact sugar content estimation and healthiness perception? An experimental online study

Nutritional labelling aims to promote informed food choices by providing information about the nutrients and health-related qualities of a product. Interestingly, despite of the lack of data, such claims are subject to heavy regulation in the EU. Studies on the impact of nutrition and health labelling are hence urgently needed. This study investigated the impact of the “no added sugar” label on perceived healthiness and estimated sugar content. In a pre-registered online experiment, 469 participants were randomly assigned to viewing eleven food products either with or without the “no added sugar” label. Participants rated the healthiness and estimated the sugar content of each product. Independent samples t-tests revealed small and mostly non-significant differences between conditions for both perceived healthiness and estimated sugar content. “No added sugar” labels seem to only have very small effects on consumers’ product perceptions, suggesting that they might play a minor role in guiding food choices. Furthermore, their effectiveness is largely unaffected by consumers’ nutritional knowledge or their shopping responsibility for others. This study is hence a first indication that some regulation of sugar claims, at least when it comes to food choices, is not justified.