Nutrition knowledge: application and perception of food labels among women

Knowing the level of consumers' nutritional knowledge is useful for promoting dietary habits. The aim of this study was to assess women's nutritional knowledge and their food label perception and their correlates. Three hundred and eighty Women referring to four large supermarkets in Shiraz were selected for this study. Data were collected through face-to-face interview. The NKQ questionnaire was used for designing the study questionnaire. The first part contained demographic characteristics and the second section encompassed questions related to nutritional knowledge of consumers about food components. The third part consisted of questions about labeling. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16. ANOVA and t-test were used for analyzing multi-variant variables. Chi-square test was used for evaluating the relationship between variables. 49.7% of the participants were healthy and others had chronic diseases. The mean score of the women's nutrition knowledge was 20.13 (from 24) and the average knowledge of women about food components were near 50%. Consumers' information about food labels application was less than 50% for all situations. The lowest use of labels was about low-salt labels and the highest for calorie content of foods. There was a significant relationship between educational status and food label use and also a significant relationship between information about added sugar and using low-sugar labels and between knowledge about low-salt foods and using low-salt labels. A significant relationship was also seen between knowledge about fat and cholesterol use for low fat foods. So, label application was correlated with educational level and nutritional knowledge of women.