The study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of current nutrition labeling of processed foods and examine awareness among university students of nutrition information given current nutrition labels, and also awareness of the one-serving size of snacks that come in differently sized packages. A total of 100 students in Chungbuk, Korea participated in this study. About 60% of the subjects knew about nutrition labeling; however, a very small percentage (11%) of the subjects reported an experience of being educated about nutrition labeling. Also, just 32% of the students checked nutrition labels when they purchased processed foods. When understanding of nutrition information on labels of snacks in differently sized packaging was tested, over 80% of the subjects understood nutrition information accurately. Five different package sizes were studied. Of these 5, packages containing about 200% of one standard serving showed the highest rate of misunderstanding of total energy contents per container. Interestingly, the students most strongly preferred containers that contained 300% of one standard serving. From these results, we conclude that students consider the current recommendation for a serving size to be small, which may be related to misreading of nutrition labels of snacks that come in packages containing less than 300% of one standard serving size. To improve accurate understanding of nutrition labels of snacks, total package labels or dual column labels on packages containing less than 300% of one standard serving size should be considered.

• 김미현(한국교통대학교 식품영양학과) | Mi-Hyun Kim Corresponding Author
• 이연우(한국교통대학교 식품영양학과) | Yeon Woo Lee
• 정혜원(한국교통대학교 식품영양학과) | Hyewon Jung