FOOD LABELS AS UNDERSTOOD BY UNDERGRADUAT ES

The purpose of this study was to determine whether claims made on food labels are well or poorly understood and whether the sex and the expe rience of consumers in buying food products influence their understand ing of the various terms used in the food industry. A questionnaire wa s randomly distributed to 285 students registered in various undergrad uate programs at the University of Ottawa. The average grade of all th e respondents to the questionnaire was 53.6% which indicates a lack of understanding of the meanings of the various terms used in the food i ndustry. The results also indicate that more frequent exposure to adve rtising by the food industry is apt to confuse the consumer. Finally, the respondents without experience in buying food products answered si gnificantly better on three question; in general, men without experien ce had significantly better results than women on some questions.