News Coverage and Sales of Products with Trans Fat Effects Before and After Changes in Federal Labeling Policy Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD, Dominick L. Frosch, PhD Introduction: The Food and Drug Administration mandated that food products list the amount of trans fat per serving on nutrition facts labels by January 1, 2006. There have been no coordinated efforts to raise awareness about trans fat since the policy went into effect, but news coverage may promote informed decisions about food purchases. This paper assesses whether news coverage influenced sales of products containing trans fat, between December 13, 2004, and June 24, 2007, both before and after the labeling policy went into effect. Methods: Sales data for products containing trans fat from a major grocery store chain with stores throughout Los Angeles County were merged with news coverage data from LexisNexis ® and ProQuest. Cross-sectional time–series regression was conducted in 2008 to assess the effect of news coverage on weekly unit sales volume for seven trans-fat products across 11,997 store-weeks. Results: News coverage effects were apparent for sales of two of the seven trans-fat products in the year before the trans-fat nutrition facts labeling policy went into effect (p0.05 with Bonferroni correction). News coverage effects were observed for sales of six of the seven trans-fat products in the post-labeling period (p0.05 with Bonferroni correction). For most products, effects were strongest at concurrent and 1-week lags, and they dissipated over time. Conclusions: News coverage about trans fat, combined with labeling information, appears to influence consumer behavior in the short term. News coverage and product labeling may not be sufficient to promote sustained changes in trans-fat purchases. (Am J Prev Med 2009;36(5):395– 401) © 2009 American Journal of Preventive Medicine Introduction T he consumption of trans fatty acids (trans fat), found in partially hydrogenated oils, is associ- ated with substantially increased risk of coro- nary heart disease (CHD). 1,2 Efforts to reduce trans- fat consumption in the U.S. have used two approaches. The first approach attempts to reduce trans-fat levels in the food supply through legislation that forces the food industry to replace trans fat with more healthful liquid vegetable oils. 3,4 New York City, Philadelphia, and California have banned the use of trans fat in foods prepared in restaurants, and several other states are considering similar laws. 5–7 The second approach, championed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US- DHHS, attempts to reduce trans-fat consumption by raising public awareness of its harmful effects. To this end, the USDHHS 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Amer- icans recommend that trans-fat consumption be “as low as possible.” 2 The FDA mandated that the amount of trans fat per serving be listed on the nutrition facts label for all conventional foods and dietary supplements. 8 Effective January 1, 2006, all food products are required to list the amount of trans fat if it exceeds 0.5g per serving. Despite this apparent commitment to informed decisions about diet, there is modest public knowl- edge about the health effects of trans fat. 7,9,10 There have been no coordinated efforts to raise awareness about trans fat since the labeling policy went into effect. A recent study concluded that nutrition facts labels on foods are unlikely to produce informed decisions about trans-fat purchases in the absence of broader consumer education programs. 7 At the same time, many newsworthy events about trans-fat research and policy have occurred. Tiburon CA became the first trans fat–free city in the U.S. in May 2005. January 2006 witnessed the final imple- mentation of the FDA’s trans-fat labeling mandate. A From the Department of Communication, Cornell University (Nie- derdeppe), Ithaca, New York; and the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, University of California Los Angeles (Frosch), Los Angeles, California Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Jeff Niederdeppe, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, 336 Kennedy Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853-4203. E-mail: jdn56@cornell.edu. 395 Am J Prev Med 2009;36(5) 0749-3797/09/$–see front matter © 2009 American Journal of Preventive Medicine • Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2009.01.023