By Cara Michelle Miller
A new study reveals an information gap in online grocery shopping: Crucial nutrition and allergen details—required on food packaging in stores—are often missing on grocery websites.
Consumers have long relied on food packaging in brick-and-mortar stores for key nutrition labeling. However, research from Tufts University and New York University (NYU) reveals that as more Americans turn to online grocery shopping, this level of transparency is increasingly absent.
“When you or I walk into a grocery store, we can reasonably expect to find certain information on most food packaging. That’s not always the case when shopping online,” Sean Cash, Bergstrom Foundation professor in global nutrition at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, told The Epoch Times.
The absence of this critical information poses risks to consumer health, said Cash, the senior author of the study published on Oct. 17 in Public Health Nutrition. As online grocery shopping grows in both volume and importance, closing the food labeling information gap could be crucial.
Incomplete Food Labelings
The researchers analyzed 60 food products across 10 major online grocery platforms and found that only 35.1 percent of products provided essential information, such as nutrition facts, ingredient lists, and allergen warnings, in an accessible manner. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires food manufacturers to display these details on packaging, online platforms are not obligated to do the same.
When consumers can’t access nutrition and ingredient information, retailers risk perpetuating misconceptions about food healthfulness, said Julia Sharib, the study’s first author and manager of research and communications for the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, in a press statement.
“For someone with a severe food allergy, there’s a risk of acute harm—even death—if this information isn’t accessible,” Cash told The Epoch Times.
Beyond allergens, the lack of details on nutrition also undermines efforts to promote healthier choices, particularly for people managing chronic conditions like hypertension, he said.
The study builds on a 2022 pilot study by Tufts and the NYU School of Global Public Health, which first identified the absence of crucial food labeling information on online grocery platforms. In that earlier research, FDA-mandated information was often missing or harder to locate than voluntary marketing claims were.
Marketing Claims Versus Nutrition Information
The new study examined products from major online retailers such as Kroger, Stop & Shop, and Walmart, covering a range of food types from packaged snacks to dairy products. The study found that the problem is widespread.
The Epoch Times reached out to these stores for comments.
While the study found FDA-required information often missing or difficult to access, marketing claims were much more prevalent. Of the 60 products analyzed, 83.7 percent featured voluntary claims such as “contains real milk” or “no artificial colors,” despite these labels not being legally required.
“We saw many cases in which a nutrition facts label, for example, was only accessible after scrolling through a dozen marketing images, essentially forcing any consumers seeking that label to interact with marketing language,” Sharib said in the press release.
Although no laws are being broken, Cash noted that the emphasis on marketing messages—often front and center—leaves consumers without the essential health information they need to make informed decisions.
“There’s clearly an issue with the emphasis on marketing slogans rather than health-related information,” Cash said. “It’s so much easier to find that your orange juice is gluten-free, but the nutrition facts panel is nowhere to be found.”
Finding Missing Information
Experts have suggested several potential solutions to bridge the gap in food labeling. One option for consumers is visiting food manufacturers’ websites, where up-to-date nutrition and allergen details are often available.
For example, manufacturers such as Stonyfield Organic and Mondelez for Oreo cookies provide up-to-date nutrition and ingredient information on their product pages, even if that information is missing from online retailers.
However, this is not seen as a long-term fix.
“Consumers shouldn’t have to go to multiple websites to find essential health information,” said Cash. “The burden should be on retailers and regulators, not on the consumer.”
A key solution, suggested Cash, is new legislation requiring online retailers to provide the same labeling information as physical stores. While the Food Labeling Modernization Act has been proposed in Congress, its broad scope has led to political challenges. Cash believes a narrower bill explicitly focused on online grocery labeling could garner more support.
The FDA also has the authority to extend its labeling requirements to online grocery platforms. Cash said the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could link labeling requirements to supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP) benefits, ensuring retailers provide necessary food information.
However, experts say that relying on government action alone isn’t enough.
In the short term, consumer pressure can help close the information gap.
“If more consumers voice their frustration, retailers may feel compelled to change,” Cash added.
While no retailer has established a uniform best practice for providing complete labeling information, Cash said that some large retailers are already doing better than others. If a major player like Kroger or Walmart took the lead in providing complete labeling, competitors could follow suit.
Making Shopping More 21st Century
As the online grocery market continues to grow—expected to reach nearly $120 billion annually by the end of 2028 and account for 12.7 percent of total grocery sales in the United States—ensuring access to crucial food labeling is essential. Research shows that when ingredient lists and nutritional facts are available, consumers make healthier choices, improving overall public health.
It is time to update labeling regulations to reflect the realities of 21st-century commerce, said Cash. While the best solution is for retailers to provide FDA-required labels, he added that a public database of food information could help online platforms comply without maintaining the data themselves.
“We simply cannot continue to let this sector grow without modern regulation,” said Sharib in the press release.
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