Awareness and Application of Food Nutritional Labels in Community Residents in Minhang District of Shanghai

Objective  To understand the status and influencing factors of awareness, attitude, and behavior regarding food nutritional labels in community residents in Minhang District of Shanghai.

Method  By stratified random sampling, 1 040 residents over 18 years old selected from 13 communities of Minhang District were invited to a questionnaire survey collecting information including basic information of participants, and food nutritional label related awareness, knowledge, attitude and application behavior in daily life.

Result  The response rate of questionnaire was 99.9% (1 039/1 040). Generally, 69.0% of the respondents were aware of food nutritional labels, in which 19.7% well understood, whereas 31.0% of the respondents were not. In addition, 76.9% of the residents considered nutritional labels were necessary. The average total score of knowledge about nutritional labels in the residents was 16.18±4.86, indicating a medium-low awareness level. Moreover, 39.6% of the residents reported a high frequency in looking for nutritional labels, and 31.2% reported a high frequency in referring to nutrition labels when purchasing food. Higher proportions of young, well educated, and getting-high-score residents knew, read, and referred to nutritional labels than the others.

Conclusion  The abilities to read, understand, and apply nutritional labels are low in the community residents in Minhang. The main factors affecting residents' reading and referring to nutritional labels include age, education, and score of knowledge of nutrition labels.