Hyderabad: To help individuals make a conscious decision to eat healthy, pre-packed food will feature pictorial front labels. ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition in the city, which conducted a study on how consumers view labels, has submitted its findings to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
It examined consumer reactions to different kinds of labels that would assist them in making the right decision about purchasing something that is ‘overall healthy’ or avoiding food considered not healthy.
In the study conducted in various parts of the country, one significant finding was that only a small percentage of consumers actually read the labels.
“The first thing that consumers look at is the date of manufacture and date of expiry. They also look at the indication whether the food is veg or non-veg. Only a small percentage of people actually look at the nutrients to understand and make a healthy choice,” said Subba Rao M Gangavaramu, principal investigator, information, communication and health education, ICMR-NIN. R Hemalatha was project coordinator of the study conducted in 2023.
In NIN’s study, the total sample size was 2,500 adults and adolescents, including participants from five regions — north (Delhi), east (Kolkata), west (Pune), south (Hyderabad) and northeast (Jorhat, Assam). Most of the respondents reported that they checked the expiry date (74.2%). Over 60% of the participants also read the brand name, and 57.7% checked the manufacturing date. “A small proportion of participants reported that they also considered nutrition information,” the report said.
The most commonly checked nutrients were calories, total fat, sugar, salt, and protein.
“In the context of growing overweight, obesity, and non-communicable diseases, if front-of-pack nutrition labelling has to serve as a preventive tool and deter consumers from the consumption of nutrients of concern, then warning indicator labels could be helpful,” NIN said in the report.