NUTRITION VALUE LABELING ON FOOD PACKAGING – RESEARCH WITH USE OF INFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS

Placing nutrition value and food composition is obligatory on the packaging according to Regulation (EU) 1169/2011. In European Union countries this regulation applied on 13.12.2014, but nutrition value labeling is obligatory from 13.12.2016. Spreading information about energy value, nutrition facts and composition is important in view of obesity epidemic in high developed countries and also in consideration of strengthening consumer health preservation trend on food market. The majority of food producers places this type of information on the packaging, but the graphic form is elective.

Subjects of research were present on Polish market food packages and also designed packaging images in accordance with guidelines of Food and Drug Administration from United State of America. Using the computer program (Tobii Studio) the retrieval speed of information of nutritional value (time between displaying images and click on the area of the package containing the specified data) was investigated. On this basis A/B test was conducted, in order to elect better version of packaging, allowing faster information searching. User Experience tools were reviewed for utility to the testing of packaging. The study allowed to indicate form of graphical presentation of this type of information causing them fast retrieval on the packaging. Also range of required on packaging nutritional information was researched in questionnaire form. The study involved 52 persons of all ages.

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