FDA Aims to Study How People Perceive Food Label Information by Tracking Eye Movement

FDA wants to know how we read food labels for better understanding on how consumers obtain information from them.

The FDA submitted its request to do studies involving eye-tracking in a July 3 Federal Register notice.

Eye tracking technology allows researchers a glimpse into how people process visual information by tracing eye movement. The FDA wants to use it to reveal which design elements on packaging attract an individual’s attention and which ones don’t.

The agency says studying how consumers respond to the visual elements on a package from product claims and logos, to the table of nutritional facts, will offer clues as to how these images impact a busy shopper’s food choices.

The FDA says data from their proposed eye tracking experiments will help them guide consumers to make better informed dietary decisions and design better questionnaires for further testing.

One proposed experiment is to be done in a laboratory while the other is to be performed in an actual store environment.