Healthier “Smart Snacks” in Schools Confuse Parents and Students

25 Oct 2016 --- Reformulated, healthier versions of less nutritious snacks sold in schools, known as Smart Snacks, confuse customers when they are packaged to look like their commercial counterparts, according to a new study.

Published in Childhood Obesity, the article, entitled "Effects of Offering Look-Alike Products as Smart Snacks in Schools" suggests that the resulting consumer confusion could compromise any dietary health gains from schools offering the smart snacks in the first place.

The researchers compared how students and parents rated look-alike Smart Snacks and store versions of the same snacks based on taste, healthfulness, and intent to purchase.

The finding that most of the study participants wrongly believed that they had seen Smart Snacks sold in stores demonstrated consumer confusion.

The authors caution that the look-alike Smart Snacks available in schools could lead people to believe that the same brands sold in stores meet similar nutritional standards. "This important study highlights the confusion students and parents experience when viewing nutritionally different versions of similar food items marketed in schools versus in stores," says Childhood Obesity Editor-in-Chief Tom Baranowski, PhD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.

“The fact that students rated the healthier versions of the snacks as equal in taste to the unhealthy versions is an important milestone for healthy snacks.”

“Hopefully this article will lead to a national discussion about what types of foods parents, students, and citizens, in general, want offered in schools.”