Eureka! Institutional Repository

Aim of the thesis: The main objective of the present thesis is to record the knowledge and perceptions of the population of Thessaloniki and Chalkidiki on the labeling of food and the nutritional label. Introduction: Nutritional label is a list of nutrients in a food label accompanied by some form of quantification mechanism. Dietary labels describe the nutrient content of foods and are meant to inform the consumer. Methodology: The quantitative method was chosen by means of a questionnaire because it is considered the most objective form of research since it is conducted under controlled conditions. The questionnaire consists of 33 multiple choice questions, Likert scale and yes / no type and 6 open questions. It is divided into two categories, in the first category there are questions concerning the personal data of respondents such as gender, educational level, age etc. In the second category there are questions about food labeling and the nutrition label. Results: Most of the consumers are buying food for the home once a week (42.9%) and spend 15 minutes each time they shop for the purchase of food items (39.3%). When buying food, consumers are most affected by the expiry date of the food (71.5%), odor and taste (46.1%), appearance (38.8%), brand name (32.4%) and the market price (53.9%). Most consumers (33.4%) read the basic food label information when they buy a product for the first time but are rarely affected by them (38.4%). Conclusions: Most consumers can not properly assess the nutritional value of the food by reading the nutrition label, and this is the result of the mistakes they made when asked to evaluate a product. Most people also believe that simpler words should be used on food labels, more symbols and images are used, and more detailed food information given.