Labeling and nutritional education

Abstract Nutritional food labeling has two components, a nutrient declaration on the back-of-package (usually mandatory) and supplementary simple graphical nutrition information on the front-of-package (commonly voluntary), which are aimed at assisting consumers to be aware of the nutritional value of foods in order to make healthy food choices. This is an important tool for nutritional education that can aid consumers in the fight against diet-related chronic diseases that currently constitute a global public health concern worldwide. In this chapter, the main factors involved in the use and understanding of nutrition labels by consumers, and a detailed explanation of the characteristics of the different types of front-of-pack nutritional label as well as their effectiveness in assisting consumers to make healthy food choices have been reviewed.