On February 10, FoodPlay Productions, an Emmy-award winning nutrition media company, hosted a big event at Frances Drake Elementary School in Leominster, Mass. to teach kids about the benefits of eating healthy and staying active. Waukesha County, Wisconsin brought teens on board to help mentor participating kids. The initiative was part of a new 4-H program called Choose Health: Food, Fun and Fitness.

It’s not difficult to see why programs like these are popping up all over the U.S. Type the phrase “childhood obesity,” into any search engine, and you’ll immediately be flooded with articles that discuss the dangers of obesity, how it’s increasing in children and adolescents and various techniques to help people stay fit. Obesity affects roughly 17 percent of all U.S. children and adolescents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Parents, teachers and other health professionals play a key role in teaching kids about why its important to get healthy. However, manufactures can also help the cause. Here are two ways they can do so:

1. Make Food Labels Easy to Read

Trying to read food labels is often difficult. Consumers often shop for food, and try to read labels, but they have trouble interpreting the language. When peering at the back of a food product, they likely find themselves asking: “What’s the difference between saturated fat, total fat and trans fat?” “Is one type of fast worse than the other?” And, “how do these different fats affect my health?” Unless consumers are food experts, they likely won’t know.

Food manufactures can help younger generations get and stay healthy by making their food labels easy to read and comprehend. Depending on the product and audience, they should create fun, inviting and child-friendly labels so young adults may be more open to read them.

2. Distribute Informational Media

Along with creating well-designed, user-friendly labels, manufactures should think about how they can increase their transparency with stakeholders about how they cook their food. They can do so by creating pamphlets, booklets and even videos that describe and show how they produce their products. Not only does this indicate the company cares about improving their consumers’ health, the practice can build consumer trust.

If you want to make a change to your labels, try our Epson TM-C7500 GHS inkjet Label Printer. Its print speed runs at​ 12 inches per second, and has a print resolution of 1200×600 dpi. Furthermore, it uses large individual ink cartridges to improve printing efficiency.

Consumers today care about their health, and they want the manufacturers that produce their food products to care also. The best ways to show that you’re ready to improve the lives of your customers is by fixing your labels, changing your messaging and being more transparent about your services.