Consumer knowledge and use of food and nutrition labelling in South Africa: a cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

The noncommunicable disease burden can be addressed through population-wide interventions, including the promotion of healthy diets through the provision of adequate nutrition information on food labels. The study aimed to determine consumer knowledge and reading of nutrition information on food labels; the self-reported impact of food and nutrition labelling on purchasing behaviour; and barriers to and expectations of reading nutrition information. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, an interviewer-administered electronic survey was conducted on adult consumers (N = 960) at 16 randomly selected grocery stores (from the four main food retailers in South Africa) in four health districts of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa. Data from the survey were exported from SurveyMonkey® to Microsoft Excel and analysed using STATISTICA Version 13. The relation between nominal variables was investigated with contingency tables and likelihood ratio chi-squared tests. Regression analysis of a continuous response variable vs. ordinal input was done and the strength of the relationship was measured with Spearman correlation. A p-value of p < .05 represented statistical significance. Only 36.0% of participants indicated that they frequently/always read nutrition information on food labels. Older individuals (p < .05), white participants (p < .001), those with a higher level of education (p < .001) and income (p < .001) read nutrition information more frequently. The main reasons for not reading nutrition information included buying the same type of product all the time (34.28%) and not being interested in the nutrition information (31.44%). The mean food and nutrition label knowledge score was 44.4% (fair or below average) with those that often read the nutrition information on labels having a significantly higher score (p < .01). Main factors influencing food purchasing behaviour included price (81.25%), sell-by date (89.16%) and products on special/promotion (87.08%). Participants would prefer less complex terminology (79.69%), more pictures/colours (71.15%), a single health endorsement logo (73.33%) and bigger font sizes (69.17%) to be used on food labels. Cape Town consumers have fair food and nutrition label knowledge and do not regularly read nutrition information on labels. This could explain why nutrition information was not mentioned as an important determinant of food purchasing. More should be done to educate consumers on utilizing the nutrition information on food labels to make healthier food choices and to simplify food labels for consumers