An online survey on consumer knowledge and understanding of added sugars
File(s)
Author(s)
Tierney, M
Gallagher, AM
Giotis, ES
Pentieva, K
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Evidence of an association between added sugars (AS) and the risk of obesity has triggered public health bodies to develop strategies enabling consumers to manage their AS intake. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has strongly recommended a reduction of free sugars to 10% of total dietary energy (TE) and conditionally recommended a reduction to 5% TE to achieve health benefits. Despite food labelling being a policy tool of choice in many countries, there is no consensus on the mandatory addition of AS to the nutrition panel of food labels. An online survey was conducted to explore consumer ability to identify AS on food labels and to investigate consumer awareness of the WHO guidelines in relation to sugar intakes. The questionnaire was tested for participant comprehension using face-to-face interviews prior to conducting the online study. The online survey was conducted in Northern Ireland during May 2015 and was completed by a convenient sample of 445 subjects. Results showed that just 4% of respondents correctly classified 10 or more ingredients from a presented list of 13 items, while 65% of participants were unaware of the WHO guidelines for sugar intake. It may be timely to reopen dialogue on inclusion of AS on food product nutrition panels.
Date Issued
2017-01-05
Date Acceptance
2016-12-23
Citation
Nutrients, 2017, 9 (1)
ISSN
2072-6643
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Nutrients
Volume
9
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2017 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution
(CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000396465500037&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Nutrition & Dietetics
obesity
added sugars
World Health Organisation
food product nutrition panels
NUTRITION INFORMATION
FORMATS
POLICY
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 37