Consumer Preferred Formats of Nutrition Labels: Housewives of Daejon City

Choi, Ji Hyun; Chung, Young Jin

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate consumer preferred formats of nutrition labels: the type of nutritional information provided on the labels. A survey was conducted on 222 housewives between the age of 20 and 65 in Daejeon city in 1998, using an interview questionnaire showing illustrated nutritional label formats. Among twelve nutrients and caloric values listed on the nutrition labels, the housewives ranked their interest in the items in the following order of calorie (58.56%), calcium (56.76%), cholesterol (54.05%), protein (39.19%) and vitamin C (36.04%). The majority of the subjects (69.37%) checked labels when they bought milk or dairy products, whereas only 8.11% looked at labels when they bought Ramyon or noodles. Most of the subjects (90.99%) preferred products with labels with nutritional information as compared with products without labels. this was especially so true of the younger individuals and of people who checked food labels more frequently. The subjects preferred labeling which described the nutrient content per package (55.41%), serving size (32.88%) and food weight of 100g (11.71%) as a standard unit. Generally, they preferred a simplified list to a detailed list of the number of nutrients, a figure graph to bar graph in nutrition claim, vertical bar graph to horizontal bar graph showing the nutritional content of foods and a web-type graphic format to a radiationformat when describing the item's percentage of the Korean RDA's nutrient content. The subjects who checked labels frequently especially preferred detailed list, while housewives with job or with unhealthy family members preferred a simplified list and graphic, rather than a numerical display. From this result, it is suggested that providing consumers with more nutrients information in a more easily understood graphic format would encourage the consumers to check nutritional labels. Therefore this should be considered when developing the regulations for nutrition labeling or when educating the public about nutrition.