Table 1.

Perceptions of food healthiness as a function of food label nutrient colouring scheme and food category healthiness among 196 respondents above the age of 18 years (males, n 82; females, n 114) sourced from a national consumer panel, USA

	Food category healthiness*
	Healthy		Unhealthy
Colouring scheme	Mean	sd	Mean	sd
Healthy=green, unhealthy=red (HGUR)†	4·10	1·27	3·34	1·61
Healthy=red, unhealthy=green (HRUG)‡	3·70	1·58	2·81	1·25
No colour (control group)§	4·86	1·23	2·82	1·56

^*Food healthiness was measured on a seven-point scale from ‘very unhealthy (1)’ to ‘very healthy (7)’.

^†Healthy=green, unhealthy=red (HGUR): colour of healthy nutrients is green and of unhealthy ones is red.

^‡Healthy=red, unhealthy=green (HRUG): colour of healthy nutrients is red and of unhealthy ones is green.

^§The nutritional table was not coloured in the control group.