CONSUMERS' AND MANUFACTURERS' PERCEPTIONS ABOUT NUTRITION LABELING IN INDIA-PROPOSED LABELS FOR INDIAN PICKLES

摘要

Five hundred literate consumers of urban Baroda and 25 pickle manufacturers all over India were surveyed to elicit information on their knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding food labels by mean's of a semi structured questionnaire. Chemical analysis of 10 commercial pickles for nutrient composition was carried out using methods outlined by AOAC international to develop nutrition labels for them. The results of the all of them were interested in nutrition labeling of foods. Almost all the consumers ranked nutrition facts as the sixth information looked for on the food label. Most of the consumers and manufacturers (80%) support mandatory nutrition labeling. On a general food label, consumers wanted declaration of calories, fat, sodium and cholesterol in order of preference. About one fifth of consumers were not willing to bear extra cost of nutrition labeling. Few manufacturers (24%) perceived that the consumers read the nutrition label always whereas most felt that the consumers have a verycasual attitude towards nutrition labels. More than half of manufacturers were ready to undertake voluntary nutrition labeling. Chemical analysis of 10 pickles using methods outlined by AOAC (1995) international showed that single serving of pickles contained 1.8 and 13 per cent of suggested upper intake of fat and sodium respectively. These values are the mean values for various types of pickles including sweet mango chutney and pickles with oil. The data obtained from nutrient compositional analysis of the pickles was used to develop nutrition labels for the same using the format prescribed by FDA.