Awareness and Use of Nutrition Labels on Pre-Packaged Foods among Consumers in Accra

Abstract

Introduction and Objective: Nutrition labels may help consumers to make healthier choices when choosing prepackaged foods and thereby reduce the risk for diet-related chronic diseases. Ghanaian consumers are increasingly consuming prepackaged foods, however there is little research on their awareness and use of nutrition labels. The study assessed awareness and use of Nutrition labels on prepackaged foods among shoppers in two selected supermarkets in the Accra Metropolis in Ghana. This will facilitate future public education efforts to promote the use of Nutrition labels. Design and Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey with 403 adult shoppers at the two supermarkets. Convenient sampling was used to recruit participants into the study. Structured pre-coded questionnaires were used to interview participants on socio demographic, health characteristics and awareness and use of food and nutrition labels. Statistical Analysis: The Chi square (χ 2) statistic was used to assess differences between those having high and low awareness of nutrition labels and between those who use nutrition labels and those who do not. Logistic regression was used to determine factors which predicted awareness and use of nutrition labels. Results: Majority (82%) of respondents were aware that some prepackaged foods carried food labels with nutrition information. The components of food labels which were most likely to be used were the expiration date (26.9%) and nutrition label information (19.6%). About 25% of the respondents reported not using nutrition labels. Among those who used nutrition labels, nutrient information most likely to be used were fats (16.4%) and sugar (16.1%) and cholesterol (14%). There were no associations between history of health conditions and special diet status of participants and nutrition label awareness and use. Among the socio demographic factors education and income were found to be positively associated with awareness of nutrition labels. Education, employment status, income and marital status were positively associated with nutrition label use. Level of education was the only significant predictor of nutrition label awareness in this study. No significant predictors of nutrition label use were observed. Compared to respondents who had completed Diploma, Degree or Post graduate education, respondents who were less likely to be aware of nutrition labels were those with Primary/Middle/JHS education or less (OR= 0.2;CI= 95%; P = 0.002) and those with SHS/Vocational/Technical education (OR=0.3;CI=95%; P=0.001). Respondents with ≤Middle school education were 80% less likely to have high awareness and those with SHS/Vocational/Technical school education were 70% less likely to have high awareness compared to individuals with Diploma and beyond. Conclusion: In summary, the study found that educational level plays a significant role in consumers‘ awareness of nutrition labels. There is the need to improve awareness of nutrition labels among the lower educated and encourage consumers who don‘t use nutrition labels to do so when purchasing prepackaged foods. Consumers who have diet-related health conditions and those who want to lose weight should be encouraged to use nutrition label information to choose healthier prepackaged foods as part of dietary and weight management efforts. The results of this study provide useful information that can inform future public education efforts to promote use of nutrition labels for sound food choices.