Ergonomic Evaluation of Labels on Ready to Eat Meal Products and their Impact on Consumer's Perceived Visual Comfort

Label is defined as a display of written, printed or graphic matter on the container or the package of the container. The design of the label should be such that the consumer can read and understand the information without any visual discomfort. The aim of the study was to conduct ergonomic evaluation of labels in terms of design features, information efficacy, mandatory guidelines and find out consumers perceived level of visual comfort while reading the label. One hundred and twenty consumers who frequently purchased ready to eat meal products formed the sample for investigation. The visual comfort while reading was measured in terms of physical and psychological visual stress symptoms. The design features were evaluated in terms of size and colour of the font, placement of label, clarity of language, colour of label background, label attraction, reflective surface package, visibility of essential information. The associations and relationship between variable were analyzed by using Chi square and Anova. The consumers perceived visual discomfort while continuously reading labels. Consumers with defective eye sight perceived visual discomfort at higher level. The design of the label has not met the visual requirements of human eye. Font size and visibility of essential information were the defects in label design. Consumers who experienced visual stress did not read the label. To attract the attention of consumers the food manufacturers should adopt ergonomic principles in designing label. The study brought out recommendations on label designing as per the user requirements.