Women Health

According to Asian Food Information Centre that there is little research in Asia looking oa consumer understanding of food label and the influence of labels and food choice and behaviour; it is unknown how well research from Europe ot the US could apply here.
In recent years, regulators in several Asian countries have been looking at ways to provide nutrition information on food packaging in additional to the standart ingredient list and nutrition information panel – which is required in most, but not all, countries.
Changing lifestyles, including declines in physical activity and changes in dietary intakes, have led to rises in lifestyle related disorders such as obesity as well as diabetes and coronary heart disease.
Nutrition information on food and beverages (as one component of an overall nutrition education programme), is been as a way to help consumers make informed choice as part of a healthier lifestyle.
Effort to provide nutrition information on food labels to help change behaviour need to be based on a sound understanding of the target audience and the way in which they will interpret use the information.
While learnings from other markets and countries are valuable, any proposed changes to food labelling methods should be thoroughly tested before being adopted as they may fail to achieve the destired outcomes while misdirecting the allocation of valuable resources.
Food choice is affected by multiple factors – education, culture, age, food preference and food beliefs among others – so it may be that Asian consumers, with their rich and diverse culture and long history of food or health beliefs, interpret food labelling and nutrition information in a different manner to their Western counterparts.

What works best?
Various types of labels have been proposed as a means to improving nutrition information on foods and beverages. These includes :
? A multiple traffic light label that depicts the nutrient content as high (red), medium (amber) or low (green) with various colored “traffic lights”.
? A guideline daily amount label which provides the amount of certain nutrients in a serving as weel as the relative constribution to daily requirements; and
? A label based on colories (energy – based) which provides the number of colories in a serving of food and the amount of colories required in a day.
A study was undertaken to look at nutrition label usage in two Asian markets (Bangkok ans Shanghai) and to try and determine which form of front – of – pack nutrition label is best understood by consumers in these markets.
In additional, the research attemped to determine whether or not the provision of nutrition information would lead to behavioural changes.
Key findings :
• The main factor influencing food and beverage choices when shopping for groceries in Shanghai and Bangkok is the freshness of the food, value for money (defined as whether the food is filling and affordable), high nutrient content (usually interpreted as being high in vitamins and minerals) and taste.
• Grocery shoppers in Bangkok and Shanghai show relatively high levels of awareness of nutrition labels on packaged foods and claim to use these labels at least occasionally. They appeared to be far more concerned about chemicals and new technologies than consumers in order countries.
• In Thailand, information from medical and health organisations was perceived to be about as credible as that from product advertisements with both sources ranking egually well as the most trusted sources of information about foods and beverages; whereas in Shanghai, they may not be the most effective communication channel.
• In both Shanghai and Bangkok, the understanding off all three types of nutrition labels – including multiple traffic light label, guideline daily amount and energy content – was relatively poor.
• Perceptions of healthiness of meals in both markets appeared to be based more on the fat contents of the meals. In Shanghai, a large number of respondents who received the EC label seemed to believe that the calorie labelled in one serving of the product signified the calories that came from fat.
• In both markets, the rapid increase in obesity and overweight has spurred governments and health associations to increase awareness and try and reverse the thend.
The findings are not really surprising. Most other studiea, including those in the US and European countries, have shown that taste and value for money are more important than nutrition in everyday food choice.

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