The influence of nutrition labelling and logos on food purchasing behaviour in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH SUMMARY : Introduction: Nutrition information on food labels is a population-based approach to nutrition education that enables consumers to make healthier food choices. In South Africa (SA) there has been a paucity of data on food and nutrition labelling and the consumer since the publication of the new food-labelling legislation.Rationale: A better understanding of how consumers engage with nutrition information on food labels is required to make recommendations to improve education campaigns to assist consumers in making healthier food choices. Additionally, food-labelling factors that influence consumer food-purchasing behaviour, and expectations/barriers to reading nutrition information on labels, could assist in making recommendations for a single front-of-pack labelling scheme to be used in SA as well as for its development.Methods: A multi-stage mixed-methods design was employed. In phase one, a cross-sectional, descriptive, interviewer-administered electronic survey was conducted on adult consumers (N=960) at 16 randomly selected grocery stores in four health districts of Cape Town (CT). In phase two, nine focus-group discussions (FGDs) were held with purposively selected consumers (N=67) to further explore phase one's findings and what type of health- endorsement logos (HELs) are preferred and why. In phase three, ten HELs were developed by a graphic design company based on the data collected in previous phases. A modified Delphi technique, conducted with experts in the fields of nutrition/food science (N=19), was employed to eliminate lowest scoring HELs and to improve the design of the HELs. Participants from the initial survey and/or FGDs took part in pilot testing of the HELs during four FGDs.Results: Main self-reported factors influencing food-purchasing behaviour included price, sell-by date and products on special/promotion, with price being the most important. Taste, brand loyalty, marketing and convenience were also major influencers. Less than half of participants indicated that nutrition information always influenced their product choice. The main reasons for not reading nutrition information included buying the same type of product all the time and being uninterested in the information. In exploring this further with FGDs, a lack of time, poor understanding of nutrition information (specifically the nutrition information table) and lack of trust in labelling information also emerged as important factors. The mean food and nutrition label knowledge score was 44%. The majority of participants preferred a single HEL to be used on food products as they don't understand the various HELs used. Such a logo should include pictures/symbols directly related to health and/or food and should state 'healthy choice. During the pilot testing, three HELs (developed and improved during two rounds of scoring) received overall rankings of 3.08/5, 3.28/5 and 3.39/5 respectively.Conclusion: CT consumers have poor food and nutrition label knowledge and nutrition information on food labels is not a major influencer of food-purchasing behaviour. Consumers struggle to understand the nutrition information provided and have expressed a need for a single HEL to be used. Consumer education on utilising the nutrition information on labels and the development of a single HEL for SA, could assist consumers to make healthier food choices and in turn address the high incidence of non-communicable diseases in SA.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University