Investigation on nutrition labeling of prepackaged foods and consumer's knowledge about nutrition labeling of food in Guangzhou

Objective To understand the current status of nutrition labeling on prepackaged foods and consumer's knowledge of nutritional labeling in Guangzhou after general principles of nutrition labeling of prepackaged products was carried out. Methods Recorded the information of 907 products' nutrition labels in the supermarkets of Guangzhou, and 570 consumers were selected and interviewed by questionnaire. Results The rate of nutrition labeling was 93.82%. The awareness rate on nutrition labels in customers was 66.1%, concern rate was 61.5%. The female were more concerned about nutrition labels than the male(χ2=8.012, P=0.005;χ2=5.767, P=0.016); the higher the education level, the understanding of food nutrition labeling information degree was higher(χ2=34.475, P=0.000). Conclusion In comparison with the days before the issue of general principles, the rate of food nutrition labeling on prepackaged food is greatly increased, but the nutrition logos are still not normalized now. The government should further enhance the supervision and inspection of nutrition labeling. Meantime, it should enhance relative propaganda and education to consumers.