Frontal Warning Labelling of Critical Nutrients in Food: Consumer Perception of Real Market Purchases and Misconceptions as a Food Policy

ABSTRACT Front‐of‐pack food labelling has been presented as a food policy tool to direct consumers to make healthier food choices. However, most of the knowledge available is about purchasing intentions and how labelling is perceived without an analysis of consumers at the time of purchase in the real market. The objective was to analyze the purchase perceptions of consumers. A total of 2688 people were surveyed in three blocks (characteristics, attitudes, and opinions). Gender, age and educational attainment are significantly associated with the frequency of responses (chi‐square: p < 0.0001). A total of 98.1% had knowledge about consumption with warning labels, but 81.5% assigned little or no importance. Principal misconceptions found were (1) critical nutrients applied in foods packaged for sale but not applied in unpackaged processed foods, (2) when all critical nutrients in the food are analyzed based on a single critical nutrient added for the determination of the warning labels, (3) foods packaged for retail sale that are not covered by front‐of‐package labelling using the category of food supplements, (4) calculation of the warning label considering the content of the critical nutrient or the correlation between calories provided in relation to total calories, (5) the school environment as an object of application for the care of children's nutrition, and (6) the use of the warning seal logos for non‐food related advertising and for the utility created. These misconceptions need to be addressed. A review of laws is required.