When we’re hungry, we’re able to detect food stimuli more quickly than neutral ones. This attentional effect diminishes when we are satiated, as food loses its value. A study conducted with a Japanese population found that this phenomenon can also be influenced by the nutritional value of foods. Specifically, high-calorie foods such as burgers or pizza were detected faster than lower-calorie foods of traditional cuisine. This attentional bias could be useful in natural contexts of scarcity and survival by facilitating the rapid detection of calorie-rich foods. However, today it may play a detrimental role in most modern societies, which are characterized by the excessive consumption of highly caloric and easily accessible foods.
Do nutritional labels affect our appetite?
One increasingly common tool used by governments to counter the harmful effects of our food environments and promote healthier habits is the use of new nutritional labeling systems. The idea is that with simpler and more visual labels (for example, the NutriScore system used in Spain), consumers can quickly and easily access nutritional information, encouraging healthier choices.
Based on this, researchers from the Neuroplasticity and Learning Group at CIMCYC set two goals:
1) To replicate the faster detection of foods and its modulation based on nutritional value in a visual search task, adapting it to a Spanish population and diet.
2)To evaluate whether a nutritional labeling system (NutriScore) could affect hunger levels and whether this would be reflected in the visual search task.
In the experimental task, participants had to indicate in each trial whether there was an odd image among a set of presented pictures, which could be either food or a neutral object (e.g., scissors). A faster detection of foods was expected, particularly for high-calorie items. Additionally, before performing the task, all participants consumed the same food, which was labeled as either high or low in calories. Since the effect of the task depends on hunger, it was expected that those who believed they had eaten a high-calorie food would feel more satiated and thus not show the same advantage in food detection.
Once again, high-calorie foods captured more attention than traditional, lower-calorie foods. Furthermore, both types of food were detected more quickly than neutral objects. However, the nutritional labels had no modulatory effect on the perception of satiety, nor did they affect the visual search task.
In summary, this study did not show that NutriScore influenced participants’ feelings of hunger, although other factors—such as a possible misunderstanding of the labeling system—may have played a role. Therefore, more research using other labeling formats is needed to confirm these findings.
Reference
González, A., Ojedo, F., Ruiz, I., & de Brugada, I. (2025). The effect of nutritional labels on the facilitation of food image detection. Food Quality and Preference, 130, 105547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2025.105547
Contact
Ana González Gómez - gonzaleza@ugr.es