Todd Hale, Senior Vice President, Consumer and Shopper Insights
Last June, we fielded a survey to our Nielsen Homescan panel which included a question asking primary shoppers about their tendencies for reading labels on food and beverage packages.  Just under two-thirds of U.S. households (61%) agree completely or agree somewhat that they read these product labels, with 31% agreeing completely.  And as you might expect, we do see some differences when we drill down across demographic groups, but we thought it would be interesting to also look at how shoppers at …

Americans are increasingly turning to foods and beverages that promote healthy living.  But just how much do these foods generate in sales? And which categories have shown the most growth?  Nielsen’s Healthy Eating Report for 2008 answers these and many other questions about food and beverage health and wellness claims.
Highlights of the report include:

Food labeled as “natural” generated $22.3 billion in sales in 2008, up 10% from 2007, and up 37% from 2004
Organic foods (UPC-coded) …

U.S. consumers are now more likely to check nutritional labels than they were in the past, according to a new survey by Nielsen, released Thursday.  
Nearly two-thirds (65%) of U.S. Consumers reported they notice nutritional information on food packaging more often now than they did two years ago.  More than half (51%) said they always check the fat content on nutrition labels, while nearly half check labels for calories (48%) and trans fats (43%). 
Nielsen also found that two-thirds (67%) of U.S. consumers claimed they “mostly” understand the nutritional information on food packaging, …