Food label literacy among urban dwelling households in Ghana

Abstract

ObjectiveThe current study examined food label literacy (FLL) among urban-dwelling households. DesignA cross-sectional survey. SettingAccra, the capital city of Ghana. ParticipantsA total of 510 participants. Main outcome measuresFood Label Literacy (FLL) was the dependent variable. FLL was assessed by participant’s ability to correctly interpret information on the use of nutrition facts table, ingredient list and health and nutrition claims when presented with ‘dummy’ food labels. Nutrition-related knowledge of food labels and food label use were the main independent variables. AnalysisData was analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression. ResultsA third of participants reported using food labels. The adequacy rate for FLL was low. However, individuals who were labels users, had adequate nutrition-related knowledge of label and their use were more likely to have adequate FLL. Conclusions and implicationsData from this study suggests that there is a need for educational interventions and labelling policy reforms such as the introduction of Front-of-package nutrition labelling to encourage, enable, and improve consumer use of food labels in Ghana.