In this study, we aimed to compare the level of nutritional literacy of two different population groups. It is a cross-sectional quantitative study with secondary data analysis. We investigated 140 individuals, both male and female, divided in two groups: 70 were customers of a mall (Group 1) and 70 were patients of the National Health System-NHS (Group 2) in Fortaleza, Ceará state, Brazil. The level of nutritional literacy was determined by the Nutritional Literacy Scale (NLS) questionnaire, which was translated into Portuguese. The two groups were compared using Chi-square test or Fisher exact test and Student's t test, adopting p<0.05 as significance level. Adequate performance was found in the NLS evaluation, which was different from the literature results. Group 2 showed worse performance (p<0.05) when compared with Group 1 for both male and female participants. The educational background of participants also influenced this performance. There were significant statistical differences according to most groups of questions considering the total female individuals. Male participants presented the best performance. The present study demonstrated that there are different performances considering various issues related to nutrition and the population groups evaluated. Further investigation should be carried out for the design of educational activities. It is suggested that the instruments of nutritional literacy assessment be validated for the Brazilian population.
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