translate prickly chunk

            Unbalanced and unhealthy eating can lead to chronic diseases.  Chronic diseases have become one of the major issues of modern age, not only in western countries but also in areas where rapid economic growth has increased global prosperity levels.  In order for medical systems to avoid shutting down or collapse under excessive costs, there are International and Public Organizations that strongly support health policies that have the purpose to help people shift towards wholesome and healthy diets.  These organizations also encourage the use of food-labels to aid consumers in making healthier food choices. 

            There was a brief questionnaire that was developed and shared on Facebook between January-March of 2016 to evaluate consumers’ knowledge and perception about food-labels.  Most of the participants were young adults with a higher education.  These adults said that they did their grocery shopping at least once a week and they read the food-labels quite often.  Even though these specific consumers were not the most knowledgeable on principles of food-labeling and basic nutrition, they were generally able to recognize healthier products based on the nutritional fact tables provided on the food item.   On average, these consumers seemed to care more about overall quality of the product versus nutritional values.  In order to get the whole population into reading food labels as an effective self-protection tool, more effort should be done to improve the knowledge of consumers on nutrition fundamentals such as basics about food labeling.  Doing this will make consumers able to make safer and more conscious choices as regards to their own health.

            A food label is a panel of information found on a package of food, which contains a variety of information about the nutritional value of the food item.  There are many pieces of information, which are standard on most food labels such as serving size, number of calories, grams of fat, included nutrients, and a list of ingredients.  This information helps consumers who are trying to restrict their intake of sodium, sugar, fat, or other ingredients.  There are also individuals who are trying to get enough of healthy nutrients such as calcium or Vitamin C.  The label provides each item with its approximate percent daily value, which is generally based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

            The primary role of food labels is to inform consumers of the food’s nutritional values and ingredients, its manufacturer, health claims and possible allergens or some other potentially threatening food information.  All of this data helps people decide whether they will eat certain food, which is why food producers put a lot of effort into creating perfect labels for their products.  A successful food label will have an appealing food label design, effective messaging to consumers, and relevant information and appropriate phrasing.