Warning labels for sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice: evaluation of 27 different labels on health effects, sugar content, energy and exercise equivalency

Objectives: Front-of-pack warning labels may reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, potentially mitigating negative health outcomes. Comparisons between different warning label types to inform future research and policy directions are lacking. This study compared 27 warning labels across six message types for their potential to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption. 

Design and methods: A national sample of regular soda (n = 2578) and juice (n = 1048) consumers aged 14–60 years participated in an online survey. Participants evaluated randomly allocated labels; one from each of six warning label sets (health-graphic, sugar-pictogram, sugar-text, exercise equivalents, health-text, energy information) on four measures of perceived effectiveness (PE: overall effectiveness, discourage from drinking, emotional response, persuasive potential). Participants could also provide open comments. A general linear model compared differences in mean scores across label sets for each measure of PE. 

Results: PE ratings differed significantly between label sets. Labels clearly quantifying sugar content (sugar-teaspoons) received consistently high PE ratings, whereas ‘high in sugar’ labels did not. Health-graphic labels were rated highly across all PE measures except persuasive potential. Exercise labels only rated highly on persuasive potential. Health-text results were mixed, and energy labels were consistently low. 

Conclusions: Simple, factual labels were easily interpreted and perceived as most effective. Labels quantifying sugar content were consistently high performers and should be advanced into policy to help decrease overconsumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.