Association between the habit of reading food labels and health-related factors in elderly individuals of the community

Abstract

Objective To investigate the association between the habit of reading food labels and health related factors in elderly individuals who are members of social groups in the city of Governador Valadares, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods This cross-sectional study interviewed 141 individuals, members of elderly social groups. The socioeconomic and health profile was defined based on sex, age, marital status, educational level, disease occurrence, use of medication, physical exercise and self-perception of health. The habit of reading the food labels was assessed through the question: “Do you read the food label before purchasing or consuming the product?”. In case of an affirmative answer, researchers asked which items from the labels were observed by the individual. Weekly food intake was assessed through a food frequency questionnaire and classified in scores. The anthropometric evaluation was based on the calculation and classification of the Body Mass Index. A multinomial logistic regression was used to determine factors associated with the habit of reading the labels, and it was considered significant when p<0.025. Results The habit of reading labels was reported by 72.3% of the participants, whom predominantly verified the product’s expiration date (90.2%), followed by the amount of fat (18.4%) and sodium (16.7%) in it. This behavior was independently associated with a lower mean consumption of medicines, a lower per capita household consumption of sugar and a higher weekly frequency of per capita whole grain consumption. Conclusion The habit of reading the food labels is associated with a better health condition and with a healthier eating behavior among elderly individuals and it should be considered as an important nutritional strategy in this age group.

Consumption Behavior and Residential Food Waste during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in Brazil

“…Nevertheless, the hypothesis that knowledge of the labeling of the food can contribute to reducing the value of waste was not confirmed. This finding contrasts with those reported by Jribi et al [11], Zainal and Hassan [21], Neff et al [29,55] and Veríssimo et al [54]. 4.…”

“…Product labels provide information to the consumer about the conditions of the food, which they use to decide to eat or discard [27,30,53]. A distinction must be made between "expiration date", which indicates until when it is safe to consume, and "to consume preferably before", which is associated with the loss of product quality, such as freshness or other properties that do not represent a health risk [53,54]. Additionally, information on labels influences behavior, as it clarifies the safety of consumption and subsequent disposal [11,21,27,29,55].…”

“…Additionally, information on labels influences behavior, as it clarifies the safety of consumption and subsequent disposal [11,21,27,29,55]. Thus, the awareness and knowledge of the label of products may help minimize food waste and make it easier for consumers to plan their food stocks and anticipate logistical issues, such as storage and refrigeration [21,27,54]. Meanwhile, it is verified that most consumers misinterpret the labeling of products and that the variation of date and terms of use resulted in a substantial amount of food waste [21,28,30,55].…”

Household Food Consumption and Wastage during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: A Comparison between Peru and Brazil

“…Conversely, consumers who clearly understand food labels are more motivated to waste less food [18,21,35,64]. For this reason, providing adequate information, especially through labels [54,65], on storage conditions after opening and expiration dates for safe consumption or disposal [7,13,41,54,66,67] is extremely critical because considering the expiration date and storage recommendations for store-bought food products reduce the economic value of household food waste. However, consumers often misinterpret expiration date information.…”

“…However, consumers often misinterpret expiration date information. For example, "use before" and "consume before" labels commonly lead to the disposal of food that is fit for consumption [28] due to the risk of a decrease in quality, freshness, or safety of consumption [13,67]. Then, the importance of understanding labels is verified and their incorrect use affects food waste [13,20,67].…”