| dc.description.abstract | Background: Food labeling seeks to provide an accurate description of the food product to the consumer. This is in the form of the nutrient composition, ingredients, measure of the food product, and food safety. This is important to inform their choice of the food product before purchasing it to ensure public health. Such a development is important in ensuring that consumers of pre-packaged food products effectively utilize the food labels. However, previous studies about this subject indicate that food label information is under-utilized by consumers.
Objectives: The study was aimed at determining the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Makerere University students. towards food labels.
Materials and Methods: The study employed a cross-sectional research design. This was done using a pre-tested, semi-structured, self-administered online questionnaire using Kobo Toolbox with five sections. Data were analysed using IBM SPPS Statistics 27 software.
Results: 79.7% of the respondents reported to read food labels. There was a significant association between the age of the respondents and the year of study with reporting food label reading and some elements of the food label (p<0.05). There was no significant association between gender and college of study with respondents who reported food label reading (p>0.05). Of the respondents, 78.5% were able to identify the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) quality mark.
Conclusion and Recommendation: The study suggests low knowledge of the students about food labels. However, there is a positive attitude of the students to improve their knowledge about food labels which is vital for them to improve their knowledge and read food labels. | en_US |
