Food Control 26 (2012) 571e574
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Evaluating the awareness and importance of food labelling information among consumers in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana Patricia Foriwaa Ababio*, Doreen Dedo Adi, Martin Amoah University of Education, Winneba College of Technology Education, P.O. Box 1277, Kumasi, Ghana
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Article history: Received 4 October 2011 Received in revised form 3 February 2012 Accepted 11 February 2012
Food labelling is an important communication tool between consumers and food manufactures. Consumers’ ability to read and understand information on a food label is vital. This study was aimed at determining the relevance of food label information to consumers in the Kumasi metropolis of Ghana. Structured questionnaires were administered to 455 respondents who were randomly selected from retail centres in Adum, Kumasi. Respondents buying indicators were in the order of expiry data, nutritional information, ingredients, taste and appearance with product price being the least. Respondents were generally conscious of date markings. Food related diseases of most concern to respondents were Diabetes (35.60%) and Hypertension (25.1%). About 45% of respondents were concerned with colour additives in food. Whiles about 89% of respondents had ever read storage instructions, 84.8% actually followed the storage instructions. Conclusively, respondents were fairly knowledgeable in the use of food label information. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Labelling Consumers Buying indicators Date marking
1. Introduction Food safety is reported to be the number one, non-negotiable priority of the food industry in the interest of the health of the consumer (Leech, 2006). The quest of food industries to reformulate products with reduced salt, fat and sugar content, employ proper portion size control in packaging and provide the necessary labelling information on food products are some of their commitments to food safety (Leech, 2006). Labelling as a legal requirement has been discussed over the years on how it could be improved to serve the consumer better. According to the Food Law in Ghana (PNDC L 305B), it is an offence to offer for sale food that is not of nature, substance and or quality. Internationally, labelling misinformation is frowned upon as it could affect the consumer negatively and in some cases result in the death of consumers. Labelling consists of any written, printed or graphic matter that is present on the package accompanying food or is exhibited near the food for the purpose of promoting its sale or disposal (Asiamah, 2006). The labelling requirement for food products in Ghana is based on the Codex Alimentarius Standards (1985). According to this standard, products should bear appropriate information to
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ233 (0) 201369543. E-mail address:
[email protected] (P.F. Ababio). 0956-7135/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.02.015
ensure that adequate and accessible information is available to the next person in the food chain to enable them to handle, store, process, prepare and display the product safely and correctly and a lot or batch number available for easy identification and recall if necessary. Details include; name of product, address of manufacturer, country of origin, net mass/weight/volume of food, list of ingredients in common names, food additives present, batch code and date of manufacture and use by date/best before date (Ghana Standards Board, 1992; USDA, 2010). In other countries, the processing method used; for instance irradiation is also a requirement (Asiamah, 2006). It is also a requirement that labelling is done in English and in cases where a foreign language is used then an English translation should be shown on the label or package insert (where applicable). Non compliance to these general laws in Ghana attracts prohibition of importation, distribution, sale and use of any product temporarily or permanently and also a fine of GH¢ 20,000 (Food and Drugs law, 1992). Consumer awareness and understanding of food label information is an important safety and health issue. Reports are that most consumers do not understand the labelling information put on most food products they buy (Douaud, 2006). However, the most important motivating factors that influence their patronage of pre-packed food products are the price, nutritional information and taste (Mahgoub, Lesoli, and Gobotwang, 2007; Schmidt & Loving, 2011; William and Caliendo, 1994). It is common knowledge in Ghana that, most consumers cannot read or do not understand food
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label information even though there is no substantial data to proof. Therefore this study is aimed at evaluating the awareness and importance of food label information to consumers in Ghana: A case study of the Kumasi metropolis. 2. Materials and methods A questionnaire was designed and administered to evaluate the awareness and importance of food label information to consumers in the Kumasi metropolis. Pre-testing of questionnaires was initially conducted using 20 randomly selected students of the College of Technology Education, Kumasi. Their results was analysed to effect necessary corrections on the final questionnaire used for the study. The questionnaire was designed to establish the socio-demographic profile of respondents, the motivating factors that affect respondents’ choice of packaged food products, health concerns of respondents and respondents’ awareness and use of date markings and storage instruction. Questions on the motivating factors were rated on a 5-point likeness scale (1 e Not important at all to 5 e very important). Structured questionnaires were self administered to respondents. A total of 455 respondents buying from various shops in Adum a popular area in Kumasi were randomly sampled for this research. The SPSS statistical package was used in data analysis. 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Respondents’ profile Respondents sampled for the research consisted of 227 (49.9%) males and 228 (50.1%) females. Respondents were generally young and within the active work group. Majority (38.2%) of the respondents were between the ages of 30e39 years. About 28.80% of respondents were aged between 20 and 29 years and 18.9% were between 40 and 49 years. Only 2% of the respondents were above 60 years (Table 1). Majority of the respondents (71.4%) had either attained or were still receiving tertiary education. About 20.2% of respondents had secondary education, 3.5% had basic education and only 4.9% were uneducated. This implies that people with tertiary education are
Table 1 Socio-demographic profile of respondents. Characteristics Gender Male Female Age range (years) Under 20 20e29 30e39 40e49 50e59 60 and above Educational level Uneducated Basic Secondary Tertiary Income bracket (GHC) No income a
