A new study reveals a widespread lack of nutrition, ingredient, and allergen information on online grocery retailer sites, raising concerns for U.S. public health and safety.
In a recent study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition , researchers from the United States of America (US) investigated the presence, accessibility, and legibility of mandatory and voluntary nutrition labeling elements across ten major online food retailers of food and beverage products in the US. They found that mandatory nutrition labels were present, accessible, and legible for only 35.1% of products, while voluntary marketing elements were present more frequently, with significant variation across retailers.
Background The rapid growth of online grocery shopping, accelerated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, has far outpaced the modernization of regulatory requirements for nutrition labeling in this space. While the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations mandate the prominent display of nutrition information in physical stores, these rules do not explicitly cover the online marketplace, leaving it up to retailers to provide such information. Preliminary studies suggest significant gaps in online compliance, with the availability of Nutrition Facts and other mandatory labels decreasing since the expansion of online food shopping.
Furthermore, retailers often prioritize voluntary marketing claims, which are more prominently displayed than mandatory nutritional.