To start with, food companies are focusing now more than ever on creating compelling packaging and in-store marketing. In 2006, food companies spent $195 million, or 12 percent of their total marketing outlay, to target consumers in-store, where 89 percent of the products they were advertising contain high levels of sugar, sodium, and/or saturated fat.
首先,食品公司越来越重视吸引眼球的食品包装和店内营销。2006年,食品公司花费了1亿9千5百万美金相当于12%的营销支出在店内营销上,推广的食品中89%含有高水平的糖份、纳和饱和脂肪。
In-store and packaging-based promotion includes everything from putting athletes on boxes to sweepstakes, and from in-box prizes to products that boast philanthropic donations with every purchase. Although there has been some self-regulation within the industry, it has applied more extensively to television advertising than packaging. (Remember how long General Mill’s self-imposed "Smart Labeling" program lasted? Less than three months!)
店内营销和立足于产品包装的推广方式包括把运动员的形象印在包装上到一些比赛,包装内附送奖品到将单次购买捆绑与捐赠捆绑。尽管有着相关的规管条例,但其主要应用在了电视广告上而非包装上。(记得通用磨坊的“智能标签”么?只推出三个月就被迫叫停了!)
Second of all, packaging is designed to keep parents from looking at the nutritional label. By cherry-picking nutritional (and more likely pseudo-nutritional) information available in huge lettering on the front of colorful boxes, food companies aim to appease any health or allergen concerns parents might have. But "Great source of calcium!", "No Trans Fat!", and "Gluten Free!" are weak stand-ins for the full nutritional picture.
其次,包装被设计成了防止父母查看营养标签的形式。通过在彩色包装的正面用巨大的字体显示精心编写的营养信息(极有可能是假的),食品公司企图缓和父母们可能存在的对健康和过敏问题的担忧。但“富含钙质!”,“不含反式脂肪!”,以及“不含谷蛋白!”根本不能取代完整的营养信息。
And finally, almost all nutrition labels on food targeted at children use the recommended daily intake values for an adult who consumes 2,000 calories a day. This happens even on food for toddlers, who need just HALF the calories of adults, according to the American Heart Association.
最后,几乎所有针对儿童的食品营养标签都使用了成人的推荐每日摄入量,后者每日消耗的能量是2000卡。甚至在针对幼儿的食品标签上也出现了同样情况,而幼儿每日所需热量只是成人的一半(据美国心脏学会)。
The result is that all of the percentage daily values on the nutrition labels are completely skewed. While a cup of cereal will have the same 26 grams of carbohydrates regardless of who is eating it, that will account for 9 percent of the recommended daily intake of carbohydrates for adults and 18 percent for a two-year-old. So even if parents' eyes do make it as far as the nutrition label, there is another chance to be misled.
结果是所有营养标签上的每日所需营养百分比都被扭曲了。不论食用者是谁,一杯麦片含有相同的26克碳水化合物,这能满足成人每日碳水化合物推荐摄入量的9%及2岁儿童每日碳水化合物推荐摄入量的18%。因此,即使父母们的火眼金睛会看下营养标签,也都可能被误导。