Nutritional Traffic Light Knowledge and Food Choices: A Cross-Sectional Study at Purchase Point

Abstract

Background: Nutrition labeling is a health promotion strategy to improve nutrition information and help consumers make healthier food choices at the point of purchase. This study aimed to assess the association between knowledge of Nutritional Traffic Light Labels (NTLL) and food choicesin Shiraz, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 418 individuals were randomly selected from chain stores. Nutrition knowledge including general nutrition awareness and NTLL knowledge were assessed by a validated questionnaire. The participants’ purchase patterns were determined based on the color code of NTLL.Results: Almost half of the participants (48.8%) had high levels of NTLL knowledge. Age of participants (p=0.012) and their level of education (p=0.003) were related to the NTLL knowledge. The findings revealed that males (p=0.037) and participants with a previous disease (p=0.029) had higher food basket score. However, no significant association wasobserved between the NTLL knowledge and food basket score.Conclusion: Despite the relatively good knowledge of participants on NTLL, the efficiency of using the labels was paradoxically low. In addition, having knowledge did not necessarily led to a successful performance in healthy food choices.

Keywords

• nutritional traffic light labels
• nutritional knowledge
• food basket
• food choice
• purchasing point