Vol. 11, Special Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Shubhika Swarnakar and Dr. Renu Mogra

Abstract:
The current research was planned with the objective to explore the food products with nutrition and health claims, to assess the knowledge of consumers regarding nutrition and health claims on food products and their purchasing behavior and to find out the consumption pattern of food products having nutrition and health claims. The study was conducted in five supermarkets which were chosen from the five directions of Udaipur city. A total of 200 respondents were chosen for the study randomly from the five selected supermarkets, all of whom had a basic understanding of English and were in between the age group of 20 – 50 years. The major findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents were educated 50 per cent of them had done graduation, and were employed (98%) and (48%) were married , had nuclear family (63.5%) and had annual income in range of 5-9 lakhs (56.5%). Most of the respondents had members in the family or suffering from health problems included blood pressure (21%), diabetes (19.5%), obesity (12.5%) and cardiovascular disease (5.5%). Majority of the respondents used to purchase packaged food items weekly (41.5%) and almost all the respondents use to read the food labels out of which 30.5 per cent use to read food labels always rest of them read often, occasionally and rarely but there were no respondent who do not use the food labels. Reading practices was significantly associated with age, young adults in the age group of 20 – 35 years were more likely to use the food label (p<0.05).Majority of the people founds it easy to get the information about the food items from “Front of pack” (46%) major reasons of reading the food label was information purpose (91%) and for health consciousness (61%).The most common reasons for not reading food labels were “ awareness about the product” (43.2%) and a lack of interest (32.4%). Majority of the respondents prefer to read the best before/expiry date (93%), brand name (92.5%), and price (85%), nutrition fact panel (65%) and health and nutrition claims (67.5%).The reading of the nutrition fact panel and health and nutrition claims was substantially related to age and education, with young adults and educated respondents were more interested in reading this information from product labels. Consumers’ knowledge regarding the role of nutrients in the body revealed that young adults (20 -35 yrs.) and educated respondents had better knowledge about the role of nutrients in the body. Majority of the respondents believe (66.5%) and inclined (66.5%) towards food products having nutrition and health claims leading to the purchase of packaged food products with nutrition claims (51.5%) and health claims (15%).The preference was more for nutrition claims than health related claims. Inclination and purchase had significant association (p<0.05) with age and health problems. Major reasons for purchasing food products with nutrition and health claims were “for general health purpose” (48.8%) and “for keeping a check on intake of particular nutrient” (41.4%). Majority of the respondents reported that the presence of health and nutrition claims on food labels helps them in making healthy food choices (45.1%).Biscuits (46.62%) and breakfast cereals (43.6%) were the most consumable food products with nutrition and health claims on daily basis. Hence, as the consumers are becoming more health conscious using food label information like nutrition and health claims to make healthy food choices there is need for proper guidance and protection from frauds for them.