Relevance of Food Labels among Selected Students at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

Food labels are important public health tool that provides consumers with nutritional information to make informed and healthier food choices. This study aimed at determining the level of knowledge and understanding of nutritional information on food labels and its impact on food choices among students at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. A cross-sectional study employing random sampling was used to recruit 200 study participants. A pre-tested structured questionnaires were used to obtain data on socio demographic characteristics, frequency of food label use and nutritional knowledge of the students. Pertaining to the frequency of food label use, 27.5% of students always use food labels, while 11% never use food labels. While most of the students were aware that packaged foods have labels, most of them do not refer to information on the labels when making purchases. Expiry date was considered the most important information on food labels, while the students may refer to labels mostly for health reasons. The students considered time wasting to be the major reason they might not refer to Food labels. However, majority of the students know what constitutes a balanced diet and how it can be achieved. There was no effect of gender, and level of study on the use of food labels, while no association was observed between nutritional knowledge of the students and the use of food labels.