Food for health - The use of nutrient content, health, and structure/function claims in food advertisements

This study employed content analysis to examine the use of nutrient content, health, and structure/function claims found in food advertisements of high circulation magazines published between 1998 and 2000. Overall, food marketers made substantial use of nutrient content claims in their ads, but very limited use of health claims, despite a growing number of FDA-authorized categories. Marketers' far greater utilization of similar-sounding, but less-stringent, structure/function claims may be attributable to a more relaxed regulatory environment for structure/function claims and avoidance of potential regulatory risk associated with health claims.