Consumer Comprehension and Usage of Nutritional Labeling in Food Purchasing
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
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.
Description
Keywords
Export Agriculture, Agriculture, Food Science, Food Technology, Marketing, Communication