Researchers say people eat more vegetables if the veggies have trendy labels. A research team found that vegetable sales went up by 25 per cent if they had trendy-sounding names. The researchers conducted their research on 600 diners at a university canteen. They labelled vegetable dishes in four different ways each day. There were vegetable dishes with a "basic" label (with just the word "carrots"), a healthy label ("carrots with sugar-free citrus dressing"), a "health positive" label ("smart-choice vitamin C citrus carrots") and a trendy label ("twisted citrus-glazed carrots").
Researchers created a wide choice of vegetables to see how effective the labels were. They used vegetables like beetroot, carrots, corn, green beans and sweet potato in their test. They used names like "twisted garlic-ginger butternut squash wedges," or "dynamite chilli," and "tangy lime-seasoned beets". They said the dishes with the trendy labels were 25% more popular than those with the "basic" labels, and 41% more popular than those with other labels. A researcher said: "Labels really can influence our sensory experience, affecting how tasty and filling we think food will be."