ROCKVILLE, Md. -- As more consumers shun artificial ingredients and seek transparency from the food and beverage industry, some companies are taking the initiative to change their products and brands.
In the report “Nutritional Labeling and Clean Labels in the U.S.: Future of Food Retailing,” published by market research firm Packaged Facts, survey data found 87% of Americans look at the Nutrition Facts panel on packaged foods and beverages at least sometimes, while 56% actively seek out nutritional information and guidelines.
Furthermore, 67% favor groceries with fewer and simpler ingredients, while about the same percentage of Americans take nutritional content statements, ingredient-free statements and statements about health benefits into consideration when buying packaged foods and beverages.
David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts, said while the federal government mandates Nutrition Facts panels and ingredients labels, some marketers, retailers and foodservice providers are overhauling their products and brands.
Major retailers have developed their own brands of clean-label products and are eliminating artificial coloring and flavorings, replacing artificial preservatives with natural ones, reducing added sugars, switching to GMO-fee ingredients and reducing or eliminating routine antibiotics given to animals. Foodservice providers, too, are endeavoring for more transparency and cleaner ingredients statements.
Recent examples:
- Kraft Foods Group, Northfield, Ill., announced plans to remove artificial colors and preservatives from its Original Macaroni & Cheese boxed dinner mixes beginning in January 2016.
- The Hershey Co., based in Hershey, Pa., announced it would begin reformulating its products with simpler and easier-to-understand ingredients. The announcement follows a three-prong strategy: to provide simpler, more natural ingredients; offer more transparency and ingredient information with consumers; and source responsible and sustainable ingredients. Hershey made the announcement a day after Glendale, Calif.-based Nestlé USA said it would stop using artificial colors and flavors in all of its chocolate candy products by the end of 2015.
- Tyson Foods, Springdale, Ark., the country’s biggest poultry producer, said by September 2017 it expects to eliminate the use of giving its chickens antibiotics that also are used in human medicine. Oakbrook, Ill.-based McDonald’s, which gets chicken from Tyson, announced that its 14,000 U.S. units would stop selling chicken raised with human antibiotics within the next two years.
Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer good and retailing, consumer packaged goods and pet products and services.
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