IMPACT OF FOOD LABELING ON BUYING BEHAVIOR REGARDING TO HEALTHY NUTRITION

Abstract

To provide the population with healthy nutrition is an urgent problem of any country. According to experts of the World Health Organization, one of the most important factors determining the health and well-being of the population is healthy nutrition. In the context of growing interest in healthy eating, an in-depth study of nutrition practices becomes particularly important, as food norms, traditions and habits are an integral part of everyday life.

Healthy nutrition is an actual problem of modern Georgia. The nutrition of the majority of the Georgian population is unbalanced, incomplete and irregular, therefore, their food supply structure remains unsatisfactory. Under the current economic conditions, many Georgian consumers are switching from natural food products to their cheaper substitutes in order to save money. This trend has a negative impact on the health of the population as a whole.

Studying the attitude of consumers towards healthy nutrition is the decisive issue of social marketing. In the literature of social marketing, much attention is paid to researching how modern life impacts on the practice ofnutrition and what changes occur regarding to the nutrition in everyday life.

Social marketing is the use of marketing concepts in a program designed to influence the voluntary behavior of target audiences in order to improve health in the society. Social marketing is focused on people, their wishes and needs, aspirations, lifestyle and freedom of choice aiming aggregate behavior change. Social marketing uses traditional marketing instruments to promote healthy attitudes and behaviors. One of the important factors of changing healthy behavior is increasing awareness and knowledge in food labeling among the general public. Most part of the population in the world uses the labels on food packaging to make healthier choices. For improving the healthy choice of the consumer,it is important to get the consumer into the habit of checking the label. The ability to choose prepackaged food based on information obtained on its label requires knowledge and ability to read, understand and interpret information.

There are many studies about the impact of food labeling on healthy nutrition, but such studies have not been carried out in Georgian reality. To solve this problem, we conducted a marketing research. Qualitative and quantitative methods have been chosen for studying and respectively, the study consisted of two steps. At the first step the focus group technique has been choosing for the qualitative survey and hypothesis formulation. In the second step the respondents were conducted online and face to face survey through the country. A systematic random sampling method was used.The research tool we chose a questionnaire that consisted of several structured questions. The questionnaire contained the information on the consent and confidentiality of the respondent, as well the study explanation and the filling instructions. A five-point Likert scale was employed. The self-administered survey method was used to avoid errors caused by the subjectivity of the interviewer. Based on this the survey results were analyzed using statistical software SPSS for windows. Along with research methodology we used variance analysis method – ANOVA. 

In the work, on the basis of variance analysis, is established dependencies of the influence of consumer awareness about the appointment and requirement of food labeling, as well as the reliability of packaging information on healthy nutrition.