CHANGES IN MEAT AND POULTRY NUTRITION LABELING REGULATIONS - IMPLICATIONS FOR NUTRITION EDUCATORS

In January 1993 the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the U .S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a rule requiring nutrit ion labels on most consumer-sized packages of processed meat and poult ry products and permitting voluntary labels on most consumer-sized pac kages of fresh products. To provide the information that FSIS needed t o make specific policy decisions, the authors conducted focus groups t o explore whether consumers draw inferences about the nutritional valu e of products based on label presence alone, whether consumers prefer nutrition information for products in their raw or cooked form, and co nsumers' attitudes towards uniform descriptors like ''low fat'' and '' lean.'' The focus groups suggest that consumers often do infer that a product with a nutrition label is healthier than one without. Most con sumers seem to prefer nutrition labeling on foods in their raw form, b ut many prefer the alternative - their cooked form. In addition, consu mers like the idea of uniform descriptors, but find descriptors ambigu ous and confusing. As consumers respond to new nutrition labeling requ irements, nutrition educators should prepare to study, understand, and modify consumers' nutrition label use.