ANALYSIS OF NUTRITIONAL LABEL USE ON PACKAGED FOODS AMONG URBAN HOMEMAKERS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper presents the type of food label information used by homemakers in Abeokuta while pur-
chasing packaged foods and the socio-economic characteristics influencing its usage. Structured
questionnaire was use to elicit information from 149 homemakers drawn by multi-stage sampling tech-
niques. The study found that majority (87.20%) of the homemakers were females with mean age of
40.2 years. About two-third (65.40%) of the homemakers considered information on food labels before
purchasing packaged foods. The most commonly considered food label information was found to be
the NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control) number (63.8%), fol-
lowed by the expiry date (59.1 %), brand name (57%), country of manufacture (51.7%) and nutritional
facts (51.0%). Results from logit regression models showed that sex, education, marital status, occu-
pation, income and health status were the key factors that significantly (p<0.05) influenced nutritional
label use.