INVESTIGATION ON CONSUMER’S KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE ABOUT NUTRITION LABELING OF FOOD IN GUANGZHOU

[Objective] To investigate consumers’ knowledge, practice and correlated effect factors about nutrition labeling of food in Guangzhou. [Methods] A questionnaire survey was conducted among 592 consumers from supermarkets in Guangzhou. The SPSS13.0 statistical software was used for data analysis. [Results] Only 8.1% of the consumers knew about nutrition labeling of food and 6.1% understood it completely. 40.7% of the consumers read nutrition labeling of food most time when they bought foods. 10.5% of the consumers believed that the nutrition labeling of food had no effect on their purchase behavior for food, 75.5% believed that it had some effect, but only 12.5% believed that it had great effect. The results of multivariate Logistic regression showed that following factors were significant associated with the effect (P≤0.05): sex, education level, understanding, trusting, and desire to understanding of nutrition labeling. [Conclusion] The level of knowledge and practice about nutrition labeling of food was not high among consumers in Guangzhou. It is necessary to implement nutrition and health education aimed at promoting consumers’ knowledge and scientific practice about nutrition labeling of food.