Abstract
Healthier menu choices are affected by the availability of nutritional information in restaurants menu. A recent regulation of mandating food restaurants in Saudi Arabia to provide calorie labeling could be promising to help consumer select better food options. Subsequently, examining calorie labeling use and understanding among consumers in Saudi Arabia is needed. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the consumers' nutrition knowledge and determine the effect of demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors relative to nutritional knowledge and calorie labeling use. A cross-sectional study was performed on 454 restaurants consumers, the period of the study was between February and May 2019. Information was collected via a questionnaire that included questions about demographic, nutritional knowledge, health status, and information about using of calorie labels. Statistical tests performed in this study included one-way ANOVA and independent samples t tests. The results revealed that the majority of the study participants were female (71%), in age 30-39 years (30%), bachelor degree (70.5%), employees (42%), high income (33 %), overweight (39%), and having no diseases (73.1%). About 45% of the sample reported their use of calorie labeling when purchasing meals from restaurants. Females had a higher score in nutritional knowledge than male. High education and high income resulted in higher scores in nutritional knowledge. Taste was the major aspect (79%) that determined participants choice of food compared to cost or nutrition facts. Most of the participants nutritional knowledge (66.1%) was very good/above average. There were significant (P< 0.05) associations between gender, level of education, health status, income, dieting, and exercising relative to nutritional knowledge. Participants who had high income, normal BMI, buying meal for tasting reasons, and who on dieting were more likely to use calorie labels when purchasing meals from restaurants. Participants who had excellent nutritional knowledge had the highest score for calorie labels use, whereas the participants who had very poor nutritional knowledge had the lowest score for calorie labels use during meals purchasing. This study recommends developing strategies to highlight the importance of educating people on how to utilize these new calories labels through health professionals and media. The addition of more nutrition information and/or interpretive of it on menus also may help people for choosing lower calorie options.