Consumers Awareness of Nutritional Information in Food Labels in Benghazi/Libya

Abstract

A nutritional label is a list of nutrient level of a product displayed on the food label. The current paper aims to study consumers' awareness of nutritional information in food labels in Benghazi, Libya. Study included four hundred participants; data were collected by questionnaires. Data were analysed by using descriptive statistics. Chi-Square test used to examine the significant differences in the sample. Findings showed that, most participants were aware that pre-packaged foods must carried nutritional label, while more than half of them had low awareness level of nutrition label information. Fat and total energy were the most sought for nutrient information among participants who used nutrition label. The use of “no preservatives” phrase for measuring consumer awareness level of nutritional label was the only parameter that give high consumer awareness level of nutritional label in comparison with other parameters such as brand name of products and the components of nutrition label. Statistically significant association were observed between nutrition label awareness and age, gender, job, marital status and education level of participants.