Research Symposium-2013

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Browsing Research Symposium-2013 by Author "Amarakoon, A.M.C."

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    Consumer Comprehension and Usage of Nutritional Labeling in Food Purchasing
    (Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka, 2013) Amarakoon, A.M.C.; Mahindarathne, M.G.P.P.; Dematawa, P.
    Consumer behavior in food market has been changed rapidly over time and as reported by Withanage and Jayasinghe (2010), Sri Lankan consumers have become more conscious of the nutrition, health, and quality of the food they eat; hence healthiness has become an important criterion for food purchases. Consumers are curious to search more information for the constituents of foods they consumed. Among many information sought by the consumers, nutritional information has become important as present day consumers keen to know about the wholesomeness of the food they consume. Identifying that, many of the manufacturers and marketers have been placing nutrition fact panel on packed foods. Though this nutritional labeling appears on the package, the utility of this information, in other word how consumers use this information has not been assessed. Hence this study examines the significant factors that affect on consumer comprehension and usage intention of nutrition labeling on food packages. Methodology A conceptual model was framed incorporating different labeling factors, product factors and background variables that affect on consumer comprehension and usage intention of nutrition labeling by expanding the theoretical framework used by Feunekesa et al. (2008) in their research of “Front-of-pack nutrition labelling: Testing effectiveness of different nutrition labelling formats front-of-pack in four European countries”. According to the above model, Consumer Usage Intention of Nutrition Labeling is a function of consumer friendliness towards nutritional labeling (e.g. comprehension, credibility and liking), perceived healthiness of the product and background variables (e.g. demographic factors, behavior and attitudes towards health, nutrition awareness, occasion of purchase and purchase motive). A structured questionnaire was developed based on the conceptual framework developed and pre-tested. Administering the questionnaire, primary data were collected from 150 super market consumers in Kandy and Colombo districts. Socio-demographic characteristics of the sample and usage intention of nutrition label in the different socio-demographic segments were analyzed applying descriptive statistics. Impact of the different factors affecting on the usage intentionof nutrition label was analyzed using multiple linear regression. Dependent variable in the model, consumer usage intention of nutrition labeling (Mean value of five point likert scale scores) was measured as the “Generalized Intention” method proposed by Francis et al. (2008). Independent variables (Table 1) were measured using most relevant assessment scales.