Consumer awareness on pre-packaged food labelling information towards the purchase of the pre-packaged food products

Abstract

This study determined the level of awareness on pre-packaged food labelling information among consumers. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather information from respondents. Purposively sampling method was used to select the TFDA registered supermarkets, provision shops and other pre-packaged food corner outlets. A systematic randomly sampling was used to interview respondents from the main outlets of the shops. A questionnaire with both close and open ended questions was used to collect information from 150 consumers who were found in the supermarket, provision shops and other pre-packaged food outlets purchasing pre-packaged food products. Descriptive statistics and the chi-square tests of significance were employed to determine the association between variables. The findings revealed that consumers were moderately aware on the use of pre-packaged food labelling information. The findings further revealed some difficulties encountered by consumers while reading food labels include technical language used, small font size when reading food label, unfamiliar language as well as incomplete labelling information. Circumstances in which consumers purchase pre-packaged food without consulting the respective labels include time constraint and purchase of routine food products. The findings revealed that respondents level of education was significantly associated with respondents awareness on the use of pre-packaged food labelling information. The findings further revealed that respondent level of education and their occupation were significantly associated with the importance of using pre-packaged food labelling information. Due to public health concern on human being, it is therefore recommended that deliberate efforts should be taken to use educational activities in order to raise consumer awareness on reading and using of pre-packaged food labelling information prior to purchase.