Immediate effects of the implementation of nutritional warnings in Uruguay: awareness, self-reported use and increased understanding

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of nutritional warnings during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry in Uruguay in terms of citizen awareness, self-reported use and ability to understand nutritional information. DESIGN The present work encompassed two online studies, conducted before (Study 1) and during the first month after the date of full compliance by the food industry (Study 2). An after-only design was used to assess awareness of the policy, exposure to nutritional warnings on food packages and self-reported use of warnings for making purchase decisions in Study 2. An after-only with control group experimental design was used to assess the effect of nutritional warnings on understanding of nutrition information in Studies 1 and 2. SETTING Uruguay, one of the Latin American countries, that has recently implemented nutritional warnings. PARTICIPANTS A non-probabilistic sample of 1772 participants was recruited using Facebook advertisements targeted at Uruguayan adult users. RESULTS High awareness and self-reported use of nutritional warnings during the first month after the date of full compliance in Uruguay were observed. In addition, the before and after comparison showed that the implementation of warnings increased citizens' ability to use nutritional information to compare products and to identify products with excessive content of sugar, fat, saturated fat and sodium. CONCLUSIONS The current study confirms results from experimental studies and provides additional evidence to support the implementation of nutritional warnings as one of the public policies that can contribute to tackle obesity and non-communicable diseases.