When I saw the news about new nutrition labeling, I admit I got a little excited. Anything to make it easier for people to eat well, right?
The Overall Nutritional Quality Index, or ONQI, is a score from 1-100 that consumers can use to compare foods. You can use it to compare the relative "healthiness" of the same foods, like cereals or fruits, and you can also compare across foods, like comparing candies to fruits.
I think it's a good idea, trouble is, this index will only be adopted by some food chains and not others.
Some other stores already use "in house" ratings for foods, but I haven't actually seen any evidence that people use these ratings (hmmm, sounds like there's a study in that...). Additionally, food companies are putting their own spin on food labels, thus adding another layer of information that the consumer use to determine how "healthy" a food is. Consumers are already overwhelmed with too many numbers when trying to buy food, and only a certain percentage of people even use nutritional information to make food choices.
Last year, I talked about food labels in the UK, and some of the problems with food rating systems.
If you don't know how to read food labels, here's a guide. Too technical? Here's one for kids.