Determinants of Nutrition Facts Table Use by Chinese Consumers for Nutritional Value Comparisons.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Huang Z
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8775507 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The nutrition facts table is a nutrition labeling tool designed to help consumers understand the nutritional content of food and make informed food choices. However, the utilization rate of the nutrition facts table has been low in China since its introduction in 2013. This study employed structural equation modeling to investigate consumers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to the nutrition facts table by using an online survey of 930 valid samples from 31 provinces in China based on the knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP) model. The analysis revealed that most respondents had a positive attitude, but not a good level of knowledge or practice in their use of the labeling. Respondents' knowledge about the nutrition facts table directly affected their attitude, through which it could then affect their practice, whereas knowledge played an indirect role in nutrition labeling use. The results confirmed that the KAP model is suitable for explaining consumers' use of nutrition labels in China, and that the first step to promoting labeling usage is to enrich consumers' knowledge on the nutrition facts table.
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Project description:The Chinese food industry has opposed the mandatory inclusion of increased nutrients in the Nutrition Facts Table (NFT), thus impeding its improvement. This poses a challenge to the endeavors aiming to assist consumers in cultivating healthy dietary habits that incorporate reduced saturated fatty acids and added sugars while ensuring the adequate intake of essential micronutrients. This study conducted a choice experiment to investigate Chinese consumers' preference for updated labeling schemes among 630 adults that were randomly selected from Central, North, East, South, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast China. It revealed that respondents were willing to pay the highest premium for the most mandatory nutrients (22.575% of the food price per unit). Respondents preferred the NFT with the most mandatory nutrients if they met the following population characteristics: female; non-overweight or obese; without a college degree; possessed an annual household disposable income between 50,000 and 99,999 CNY; from North China; lived in rural areas and often cooked for family; cared about food nutrition. Two combinations of NFT information received the highest preference: (1) the NFT detailing the most mandatory nutrients and their content values and nutrient reference values (NRV%); (2) the NFT containing the most nutrients and the nutrients in 100 g/mL or a serving. The first and second combinations attracted a premium of 14.884% and 31.833% of the food price per unit, respectively.
| S-EPMC10708288 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Since 2013, China has implemented a nutrition label regulation that aims to provide essential nutrition information through nutrition facts tables labeled on the back of food packages. Yet, the relationship between people's nutrition knowledge and their nutrition label use remains less clear. This study adopted the structural equation modeling approach to analyze a nationally representative survey of 1500 Chinese individuals through the cognitive processing model, interrelated nutrition knowledge, attention to nutrition information on the nutrition facts table, comprehension of nutrition information, food choice and dietary intake. It was found that nutrition knowledge positively influenced attention to nutrition information; a better comprehension of nutrition information, which could benefit healthier food choices, did not relate to a higher level of attention to that information; dietary intake was affected significantly by nutrition knowledge, but it had little impact on food choice. The results signify that nutrition knowledge hardly supports nutrition facts table use among the Chinese people, mainly due to incomprehensible labeled information. Therefore, it emphasizes the need to enhance people's comprehension through front-of-package labels and corresponding smartphone applications.
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Project description:The Nutrition Facts (NF) label was recently updated and now includes the added sugars content in an effort to reduce added sugars consumption. This study investigated whether consumers wanted to access or avoid the added sugars content using an online experiment and five product categories (yogurt, cereal, fruit juice, snack bar, ice cream). We recruited a sample of 490 U.S. adults (49% female; 73% White/Caucasian). Respondents were randomly assigned to an information treatment (simple or full) before making decisions on whether to access or avoid the added sugars content. The simple information treatment explained that added sugars information was now available on the NF label, while the full information treatment included additional details (e.g., how to interpret the added sugars content and associated diseases). After making the access or avoid decisions for each product category, respondents rated their likelihood of purchase for ten products (two per category). Rates of information avoidance were much lower than what has been observed in previous studies, and rates of avoidance did not vary by information treatment. The majority of respondents (75-87% across the five product categories) preferred to access the added sugars content. Still, we found some consumers preferred to avoid this information, with higher rates of avoidance for the ice cream product category. Additionally, we found significant differences in likelihood of purchase ratings between information accessors and avoiders. Respondents who chose to access the added sugars information exhibited healthier purchasing behaviors for all product categories; they were more likely to purchase low added sugars products and less likely to purchase high added sugars products relative to information avoiders. Given consumers' demonstrated interest in accessing the added sugars content, it is important that the new changes to the NF label be broadly communicated to promote healthy eating behaviors.
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Project description:One of the current drivers of the infant food market is the rising demand for vegan products, and thus accurate knowledge of their nutritional composition is required to guide parents and health professionals. Thus, this study aimed to assess the nutritional composition of commercial plant-based infant foods, in addition to analyzing their health/nutrition claims. A selection of infant products launched in the global market (2017-2021) were classified into eight types and each type was divided into vegan and vegetarian products. Based on the ingredients list, cereals, seeds, pseudocereals and/or pulses were the most used ingredients in the retrieved products. The nutritional composition of six out eight types varied significantly among vegan and vegetarian products. When protein, calcium and iron contents differed significantly, vegan products had the highest protein content in all categories, compared to those that were vegetarian. When significant differences were found in sugar content, vegan products have lower amounts in all categories, compared to vegetarian products. Health and nutrition claims were found mostly used in vegetarian products. Strategies to reduce added sodium and sugar, and saturated fatty acids is required to ensure a healthy diet for infants. This study also implies the importance of a complete labelling of infants' foods, especially vegan products to help parents making a reasonable choice.
| S-EPMC9572996 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundSophisticated recommendation systems are used more and more in the health sector to assist consumers in healthy decision making. In this study we investigate consumers' evaluation of hypothetical health recommendation systems that provide personalized nutrition advice. We examine consumers' intention to use such a health recommendation system as a function of options related to the underlying system (e.g. the type of company that generates the advice) as well as intermediaries (e.g. general practitioner) that might assist in using the system. We further explore if the effect of both the system and intermediaries on intention to use a health recommendation system are mediated by consumers' perceived effort, privacy risk, usefulness and enjoyment.Methods204 respondents from a consumer panel in the Netherlands participated. The data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Each respondent evaluated three hypothetical health recommendation systems on validated multi-scale measures of effort, privacy risk, usefulness, enjoyment and intention to use the system. To test the hypothesized relationships we used regression analyses.ResultsWe find evidence that the options related to the underlying system as well as the intermediaries involved influence consumers' intention to use such a health recommendation system and that these effects are mediated by perceptions of effort, privacy risk, usefulness and enjoyment. Also, we find that consumers value usefulness of a system more and enjoyment less when a general practitioner advices them to use a health recommendation system than if they use it out of their own curiosity.ConclusionsWe developed and tested a model of consumers' intention to use a health recommendation system. We found that intermediaries play an important role in how consumers evaluate such a system over and above options of the underlying system that is used to generate the recommendation. Also, health-related information services seem to rely on endorsement by the medical sector. This has considerable implications for the distribution as well as the communication channels of health recommendation systems which may be quite difficult to put into practice outside traditional health service channels.
| S-EPMC3623628 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A new generation of plant-based meat alternatives-formulated to mimic the taste and nutritional composition of red meat-have attracted considerable consumer interest, research attention, and media coverage. This has raised questions of whether plant-based meat alternatives represent proper nutritional replacements to animal meat. The goal of our study was to use untargeted metabolomics to provide an in-depth comparison of the metabolite profiles a popular plant-based meat alternative (n = 18) and grass-fed ground beef (n = 18) matched for serving size (113 g) and fat content (14 g). Despite apparent similarities based on Nutrition Facts panels, our metabolomics analysis found that metabolite abundances between the plant-based meat alternative and grass-fed ground beef differed by 90% (171 out of 190 profiled metabolites; false discovery rate adjusted p < 0.05). Several metabolites were found either exclusively (22 metabolites) or in greater quantities in beef (51 metabolites) (all, p < 0.05). Nutrients such as docosahexaenoic acid (ω-3), niacinamide (vitamin B3), glucosamine, hydroxyproline and the anti-oxidants allantoin, anserine, cysteamine, spermine, and squalene were amongst those only found in beef. Several other metabolites were found exclusively (31 metabolites) or in greater quantities (67 metabolites) in the plant-based meat alternative (all, p < 0.05). Ascorbate (vitamin C), phytosterols, and several phenolic anti-oxidants such as loganin, sulfurol, syringic acid, tyrosol, and vanillic acid were amongst those only found in the plant-based meat alternative. Large differences in metabolites within various nutrient classes (e.g., amino acids, dipeptides, vitamins, phenols, tocopherols, and fatty acids) with physiological, anti-inflammatory, and/or immunomodulatory roles indicate that these products should not be viewed as truly nutritionally interchangeable, but could be viewed as complementary in terms of provided nutrients. The new information we provide is important for making informed decisions by consumers and health professionals. It cannot be determined from our data if either source is healthier to consume.
| S-EPMC8257669 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Composition claim, nutrition claim and health claim are often found on the commercial complementary food packaging. The introduction of complementary foods (CFs) to infants is a turning point in the development of their eating behavior, and their commercial use for Taiwanese infants is growing. In Taiwan, lots of the advertisements for CFs employed health or nutrition claims to promote the products, but the actual nutritional content of these CFs is not clear. The aim of this study was to compare the food claims of commercial complementary food products with their actual nutrition facts. A sample of 363 commercial CFs was collected from websites, local supermarkets, and other food stores, and their nutrition-related claims were classified into composition, nutrition, and health categories. Although the World Health Organization recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months, 48.2% of the commercial CFs were targeted at infants younger than 6 months. Therefore, marketing regulations should be implemented to curb early weaning as a result of products targeted at infants younger than 6 months. More than 50% of Taiwanese commercial CFs have high sugar content and more than 20% were high in sodium. Products with health claims, such as "provides good nutrition to children" or "improves appetite," have higher sodium or sugar content than do those without such claims. Moreover, products with calcium or iron content claims did not contain more calcium or iron than products without such claims. Additionally, a significantly greater proportion of the products with "no added sugar" claims were classified as having high sugar content as compared to those without such claims. Parents cannot choose the healthiest food products for their children by simply focusing on food claims. Government should regulate the labeling of nutrition facts and food claims for foods targeted at infants younger than 12 months.
| S-EPMC5830294 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveThe study aims were to (i) identify determinants of Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP) use and (ii) describe the association between NFP use and dietary intake among Latinos with type 2 diabetes.DesignBaseline cross-sectional data from a clinical trial were used to assess the association between NFP use and dietary intake. Diet was measured using two methods: (i) a diet quality score (the Healthy Eating Index-2010) derived from a single 24 h recall and (ii) dietary pattern (exploratory factor analyses) from an FFQ. Multivariable logistic and non-parametric quantile regressions were conducted, as appropriate. Settings Hartford County, Connecticut, USA.SubjectsLatino adults (n 203), ≥21 years of age, with diagnosed type 2 diabetes, glycosylated Hb≥7 %, and without medical conditions limiting physical activity.ResultsParticipants' education level, diabetes-related knowledge and English speaking were positively associated with NFP use. At the higher percentiles of diet quality score, NFP use was significantly associated with higher diet quality. Similarly, NFP users were more likely to consume a 'healthy' dietary pattern (P=0·003) and less likely to consume a 'fried snack' pattern (P=0·048) compared with NFP non-users.ConclusionsThe association between reported NFP use and diet quality was positive and significantly stronger among participants who reported consuming a healthier diet. While NFP use was associated with a healthier dietary pattern, not using NFP was associated with a less-healthy, fried snack pattern. Longitudinal studies are needed to understand whether improving NFP use could be an effective intervention to improve diet quality among Latinos with type 2 diabetes.
| S-EPMC7050628 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundBased on the consumers' attention issues of sea cucumbers, we aimed to complete comprehensive information of commercial Canadian sea cucumbers (CCSC), which sprang up extensively in Chinese food market.ResultsCCSC were identified as Cucumaria frondosa and characterized based on the characteristics, nutritional compositions, and heavy metals. The abdomen and five internal tendons of Cucumaria frondosa were special orange. The average of soaking degree and water content, which consumers paid great attention to, was 2.8 ± 0.3 and 0.46 ± 0.09%, respectively. Proteins (56.4 ± 9.1%) and polysaccharides (12.2 ± 14.7%) were the principal nutrient component. In addition, there was a variety of free amino acids, in which arginine (70.1 ± 50.0 mg/100 g), glutamate (42.6 ± 23.9 mg/100 g), and alanine (32.2 ± 21.0 mg/100 g) were the main components. Phosphorus (P, 0.26 ± 0.05%), magnesium (Mg, 0.19 ± 0.07%), and kalium (K, 0.17 ± 0.08%) were the major mineral elements. Amount of heavy metal was within the safety limitation (5.5 ± 1.4 mg/kg). Furthermore, the active ingredients were positively correlated with size.ConclusionThe overall findings enriched the information of Cucumaria frondosa for consumers and suggested that the quality of Cucumaria frondosa was varied following commercial classification and size.
| S-EPMC7684582 | biostudies-literature