Healthy food packaging tricks: five methods companies use to make you think food is good for you
- From print colour to bottle shape, there are many packaging ploys designed to make you think you’re making a healthy choice
- While design techniques are often used fairly to communicate the presence of a more healthy product, they can also be misleading
Next time you grab a package off the grocery store shelf thinking it looks like a healthy choice, take a moment before you toss it into your cart.
But unlike explicit written nutrition claims such as “low sodium”, which are subject to strict governmental regulation, the implied health messages of package design are entirely up to the manufacturer. And while design techniques are often used fairly to communicate the presence of a more healthy product, they are also sometimes employed in misleading ways.
Keep an eye out for these tricks of the trade to avoid being duped by a product with a deceptively healthy veneer.
1. Thin, shapely containers
It’s no accident that many packaged lower-calorie drinks such as skinny margaritas and flavoured sparkling waters come in thin bottles.