Abstract
The increase in relative level of education and the growing middle-class income earners in Nigeria have made packaged food items attractive to consumers. These foods provide handy, nutritious and convenient food for consumers; however, they also come with public health concerns. From a policy perspective, food labelling can gauge consumers’ response to the safety conditions of packaged food. However, understanding consumers’ awareness and the use of food label information has attracted little research attention in many developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, we investigate consumers’ awareness of the use of food safety labels in Lagos state, Nigeria. We used primary data collected using pretested structured questionnaire from 220 food shoppers who bought pre-packaged foods. A two-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Consumers’ awareness and use of food safety information was revealed using descriptive statistics; Ordinal Regression Analysis was used to examine the socioeconomic factors determining the frequency of reading food safety labels. The study therefore recommends that there should be continuous awareness campaigns on the importance of food labels in ensuring safety and food producers should make sure their food labels are legible.
Highlights
Globalization, the demand for healthy food and the significant progress in food science and technology have resulted in an increase in the consumption of imported pre-packaged foods and local food producers following internationally acceptable standards
Because the change in food and consumption lifestyle often comes with public health concerns, regulators often emphasize the use of food labelling to address the health concerns that may arise from the changing food lifestyle
This study examined consumers’ awareness and use of food safety information among food shoppers in Lagos state
Summary
Globalization, the demand for healthy food and the significant progress in food science and technology have resulted in an increase in the consumption of imported pre-packaged foods and local food producers following internationally acceptable standards. Because the change in food and consumption lifestyle often comes with public health concerns, regulators often emphasize the use of food labelling to address the health concerns that may arise from the changing food lifestyle. Food labelling enables local consumers to make informed decisions on food choices. Food product labelling is a policy tool used by regulators to gauge the response of consumers to health information and is used by food companies for product differentiation strategy (Kaur, Nirmal Kaur, & Neha Qumar, 2016). Unlike in many industrialized countries, there have been very few studies in Nigeria on consumers’ awareness of food labelling. According to a report by the Office of Agricultural Affairs of the USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service in Lagos, Nigeria (David, 2009), the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has been empowered by law - Government of Nigeria Act No 19 of 1993 (as amended) and the Food and Related
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