Parents knowledge of nutritional labeling and its impact on food choices

Abstract

The nutritional label is a tool that helps parents to make decisions about their eating plan, in order to make safe purchases. The objective was to analyze the knowledge that parents have about nutritional labeling and its impact on food choices, for which an observational, prospective and analytical study was used. A questionnaire made up of 14 questions was applied to 36 settlers from a community in the State of Zacatecas. As a result, it was obtained that 97% do know the nutritional information table, and of these 69% if it seems important to read and understand the label, which influences when making the choice of food purchases, more than half of the population considers that the current design greatly favors reading. It was concluded that although the majority of the population already knows it, it is of vital importance that the totality of this, in addition to knowing it, fully understand it and take into account all the nutrients or substances that may harm it and thus be able to choose the best products for their diet and that of the family and thus have a better nutritional status.