The Role of Nutrition Label among Malaysian Consumer: A Preliminary Review

Abstract

This paper seeks to identify the role of the nutrition label, particularly on the use and attitude in the context of Malaysian consumer. Specifically, this paper provides the definitions of the nutrition label, nutrition label use and nutrition label attitude, and describe the potential antecedent and outcome of nutrition label use and attitude obtained from previous research. This is a content analysis involving relevant articles that were identified using both electronic and manual bibliographic search methods. Overall, it was revealed of the lack of empirical evidence on the role of the nutrition label, particularly on the consumer use and attitude in developing countries including Malaysia. The health knowledge has been frequently tested as the antecedent of nutrition label use and attitude, while healthy food choice as the outcome variable. This study provides one of the few attempts to identify, consolidate, and evaluate the extant literature on the nutrition label in the context of Malaysia. Hence, it provides a reference point that could stimulate and guide future research on the nutrition label.