Master's Thesis

My master's thesis coupled my passion for marketing with my enthusiasm for public health policy. The purpose of the thesis was to introduce American consumers to the stoplight food labeling system that is present in other countries like Mexico and the UK.

Typical stoplight labels focus on displaying key food nutrients (sugar, sodium, fat, and calories) in a way that corresponds their level present in food with a color associated with their prevalent health risk. Green means there are low levels of an item, yellow is moderate, and red is high levels.

The purpose of my research was to extend the idea of a stoplight label to that of food additives commonly found in processed food items. The stoplight label was extended to a 5 color label, with green indicating safe to consume, soft green indicating consume in moderation, yellow indicating certain people should avoid, orange indicating caution, and red indicating avoid at all costs.

The purpose of this research was to provide consumers with an easy to understand tool that can assist in food purchasing behaviors. Today, many consumers are becoming more conscious of additives in food.

I conducted a survey with over 200 American consumers to determine their current awareness of food additives, and how a stoplight label pertaining to these additives could affect their purchasing behaviors.