Thai Consumer Diffifculties and Barriers in Understanding Nutrition Labels: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Background Systematic review of nutrition labels in Thailand has not yet been attempted and there is a little information on Thai consumer understanding of existing labels. To fifll this gap, we investigated Thai consumers and real food packages, identifying the diffficulties and barriers consumers have with both Nutrition Information Panels (NIP) and Guideline Daily Amounts (GDA) labels. Materials and Methods The study employed samples of real food packages and in-depth interviews of 34 participants aged 20-45 years including urban (Bangkok) university educated consumers, and rural (Ranong) non-university educated consumers representing a wide range of socio-demographic groups. Interviews were audio and video recorded to collect verbal and non-verbal information. A qualitative data analysis program was used to help in the analysis of transcripts by searching for repeated words and codes to build themes and meanings.Results We identiffied four diffficulties consumers have with nutrition labels (low awareness, suspected truthfulness of information, low literacy and numeracy, and insufffifcient nutrition knowledge), and fffive barriers (confusing labels, small font size, use of technical terms, repeated words, unobtrusive location). These problems impeded consumer use of nutrition labels. However existing nutrition labels can increase trust in a food product. Conclusions To improve consumer understanding of labels we suggest practical ways to amend NIP or GDA and recommend nutrition education strategies to enhance consumer knowledge. Results of this study should contribute to the design of nutrition labels that are easier for consumers to use.