The evaluation of food labels and students' interpretation and use of food labels

English: The purpose of this study was to determine South African university students' interpretation and use of food labels as well as evaluating food labels according to the new South African food labeling regulations. A quantitative research approach was used and data collected using selfadministered questionnaires consisting of 67 scaled questions. Respondents were recruited in students' residences where they were readily available. Five hundred questionnaires were distributed equally between five male and female residences respectively on the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Free State. A total of 152 respondents completed the questionnaires which were analyzed statistically using the SPSS version 17.0 software package. The results of the study revealed that respondents were aware of label information but could not interpret most of them correctly. Respondents perceived label aspects information as important and perceived the date mark, price cooking/preparation, brand name, product mass/volume, nutrition information and ingredients list very important and the country of origin as the least important label aspect. With regard to source of information, the source of food label information most used by the consumers is magazines, television, doctor, books/leaflets and parents or other relatives. The least used source of information is the internet and the radio. The internet, health club and gym are the only sources of information on which there was a significant difference between the male and female respondents. The results also revealed that majority of the products were labeled according to the new South African food labeling regulations with a few exceptions. These results imply that the student consumers sample did not interpret food label information correctly and they can therefore not use it positively. It is recommended that educational information materials be developed and made available to consumers to enable consumers to interpret label information correctly. Future research can be aimed at the development of relevant informational material.