EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF NUTRITIONAL LABELLING ON CONSUMER PURCHASING DECISION: A CASE STUDY OF FOOD BUYERS WITHIN THE KUMASI METROPOLIS..

ABSTRACT The study investigated how nutritional labelling affects consumer purchasing decisions of food products within the Kumasi metropolis. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to find out the level of awareness of consumers towards nutritional labelling in terms of buying behaviour, to examine whether nutritional labelling affect consumer decision to purchase healthy food products and finally to ascertain whether a consumer demographic characteristics (i.e. gender, income, educational level) affect their decision to check for a nutritional labelling on food products. This study followed the cross sectional research design hence, quantitative methodology was adopted. The total population for the study covered the undergraduate students of the University of Education-Winneba, Kumasi campus. Therefore the population size for this study was 7500. The study employed probability sampling specifically simple random sampling to select the study participants. Subsequently, the study used the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) sampling table to determine the sample size for the 7500 population size. Based on the table, the sample size for this study was 365 with a 95% confidence interval (error of margin). Since the study was guided on the principles of quantitative methodology, this study used questionnaires item as its research instrument. The study distributed 365 questionnaires to the undergraduate students of the University of Education-Winneba, Kumasi campus. From the questionnaires distributed, a total of 190 completed questionnaires were returned to the researcher. Of these, 120 were usable for analysis, giving an effective response rate of 40.67%. Data was subsequently analysed using descriptive statistics such as Mean and Standard deviation. Inferential statistics included Pearson correlation, multiple regression (enter method) were used for the relationship analysis. Findings from this study revealed that most of the respondents had a low level of awareness of nutritional labelling. Equally it became evident that respondents’ personal characteristics (i.e. average monthly income and educational level) had a significant impact on their decision to check for a nutritional labelling on food products. The study recommended that the regulating bodies such as the Ministry of Health, Food and Drug Board and the Ghana Standard Board should as a matter of urgency take it upon themselves to organize sensitization programs across the entire country most especially within the educational institution to educate students about the relevance of nutritional labels.