FOOD LITERACY
How Do Communications and Marketing Impact
Consumer Knowledge, Skills, and Behavior?
WORKSHOP SUMMARY
Leslie Pray, Rapporteur
Food Forum
Food and Nutrition Board
Health and Medicine Division
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, DC
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health (HHSN26300002); the U.S. Department of Agriculture (59-1235-2-114, AG-3A94-P-14-0116, CNPP-IOM-FY-2014-01, and FS_NAS_IOM_FY2014_01); and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (HHSP233201400020B/HHSP23337012), with additional support by Abbott Laboratories, Incorporated; Cargill, Inc.; The Coca-Cola Company; ConAgra Foods, Inc.; Dr Pepper Snapple Group; General Mills, Inc.; Kellogg Company; Kraft Heinz; Mars, Inc.; Monsanto; Nestlé Nutrition; Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.; PepsiCo; and Tate & Lyle. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-39131-3
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-39131-8
Digital Object Identifier: 10.17226/21897
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Food literacy: How do communications and marketing impact consumer knowledge, skills, and behavior?: Workshop summary. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/21897.
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PLANNING COMMITTEE FOR A WORKSHOP ON FOOD LITERACY: HOW DO COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING IMPACT CONSUMER KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOR?1
Sarah Roller (Chair), Partner, Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP, Washington, DC
Fergus Clydesdale, Distinguished Professor and Director of the Food Science Policy Alliance, Department of Food Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Sonya Grier, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington, DC
Linda Harris, Team Leader, Health Communication and eHealth Team, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland
Kristen Harrison, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Director, Media Psychology Program at the Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Wendy L. Johnson-Askew, Director, Public Policy, Nestlé Nutrition, Florham Park, New Jersey
Jason Riis, Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
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1 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s planning committees are solely responsible for organizing the workshop, identifying topics, and choosing speakers. The responsibility for the published workshop summary rests with the workshop rapporteur and the institution.
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FOOD FORUM1
SYLVIA ROWE (Chair), President, SR Strategy, LLC, Washington, DC
NELSON ALMEIDA, Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, Michigan
MARK ANDON, ConAgra Foods Inc., Omaha, Nebraska
DAVID J. BAER, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
FRANCIS (FRANK) BUSTA, University of Minnesota, St. Paul
PAUL M. COATES, Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
DAVID B. COCKRAM, Abbott Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
DAVID GOLDMAN, Food Safety and Inspection Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC
DANIEL A. GOLDSTEIN, Monsanto, St. Louis, Missouri
DANIELLE GREENBURG, PepsiCo, Purchase, New York
SONYA A. GRIER, American University, Washington, DC
BRENDA HALBROOK, Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, Virginia
KATE J. HOUSTON, Cargill Incorporated, Washington, DC
STEPHEN P. JAMES, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
LEE-ANN JAYKUS, North Carolina State University, Raleigh
GORDON L. JENSEN, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
HELEN H. JENSEN, Iowa State University, Ames
RENÉE S. JOHNSON, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
WENDY L. JOHNSON-ASKEW, Nestlé Nutrition, Florham Park, New Jersey
CHRISTINA KHOO, Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., Lakeville, Massachusetts
SUSAN TAYLOR MAYNE, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, College Park, Maryland
S. SUZANNE NIELSEN, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana
ERIK D. OLSON, Natural Resources Defense Council, Washington, DC
RICHARD OLSON, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Rockville, Maryland
LUCY REID, The Coca-Cola Company, Atlanta, Georgia
CLAUDIA RIEDT, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Plano, Texas
STEVEN W. RIZK, Mars, Inc., McLean, Virginia
______________
1 The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s forums and roundtables do not issue, review, or approve individual documents. The responsibility for the published workshop summary rests with the workshop rapporteur and the institution.
SARAH ROLLER, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Washington, DC
SHARON A. ROSS, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
KARI HECKER RYAN, Kraft Foods, Glenview, Illinois
PAMELA STARKE-REED, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland
ANGELA M. TAGTOW, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Alexandria, Virginia
MAHA TAHIRI, General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota
PATRICIA WILLIAMSON, Tate & Lyle, Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Forum Staff
HEATHER DEL VALLE COOK, Co-Director
LESLIE J. SIM, Co-Director
ANNA BURY, Research Assistant
GERALDINE KENNEDO, Administrative Assistant
ANN YAKTINE, Director, Food and Nutrition Board
Reviewers
This workshop summary has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published workshop summary as sound as possible and to ensure that the workshop summary meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this workshop summary:
Renée S. Johnson, Library of Congress
S. Suzanne Nielsen, Purdue University
Sarah Roller, Kelley Drye & Warren, LLP
Patricia Williamson, Tate & Lyle
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they did not see the final draft of this workshop summary before its release. The review of this workshop summary was overseen by Caswell A. Evans, Jr., University of Illinois at Chicago. He was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this workshop summary was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this workshop summary rests entirely with the rapporteur and the institution.
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Contents
Food Literacy as a Path to Food Well-Being
A Health Literacy Perspective on Consumers’ Food Education, Skills, and Behavior
Believing Science-Free Stuff: Nutrition Perceptions and the Role of Popular Culture
Translation of Scientific Research to Popular Thought
Credibility of Communicators: Whom Do Consumers Trust?
Food Communications: It’s Greek to Me!
How Nutrition Information Is Presented to and Processed by Consumers
Activating Consumers on the Path-to-Purchase: Decoding the Role of Big Data and Digital Marketing
How Policies Can Promote Healthy Food Environments and Food Literacy to Benefit Population Health
Role of Policy: Why Do We Base Policy on How We Feel and Not on Science?
Feedback on the Day from a Media Perspective
3 PROMOTING FOOD LITERACY: COMMUNICATION TOOLS AND STRATEGIES
Memorable and Actionable Health Guidelines
Marketing to Expand the Practice of Behaviors Associated with Food Literacy
The Social Norms Approach: Changing Behavior Through a Paradigm Shift
Values and Vittles: A Commercial Marketing Practices Case History
Using Participatory Design to Improve Large-Scale Food Literacy
What Does Food Literacy Success Look Like?
Educating Physicians and Other Health Care Professionals About Nutrition
Delivering Knowledge to People Whose Lives Are Too Busy for Them to Take on Any More “Chores,”
Sending a Single Message Versus Designing a Communications Environment