Study of the Coverage of Nutrition Labeling System on the Nutrient Intake of Koreans – using the 2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES) Data

Article information

Korean J Community Nutr. 2018;23(2):116-127

Publication date (electronic) : 2018 January 20

doi : https://doi.org/10.5720/kjcn.2018.23.2.116

Ji Eun Park ¹⁾, Haeng-Shin Lee ²⁾, Yoonna Lee ³⁾^,

¹⁾Department of Nutrition Research Team, R&D Center, Nongshim, Seoul 07057, Korea

²⁾Department of Lifecare Industry, Korea Health Industry Development Institute, Chungbuk 28159, Korea

³⁾Department of Food and nutrition, Shingu College, Seongnam 13174, Korea

^†Corresponding author Yoonna Lee Department of Food & Nutrition, Shingu College, 377 Gwangmyeong-ro, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do 462-743, Korea Tel: (031) 740-1528 Fax: (031) 740-1590 E-mail: ynlee@shingu.ac.kr ORCID: 0000-0003-2302-3646

Received 2018 February 12; Revised 2018 April 10; Accepted 2018 April 20.

Abstract

Objectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the coverage of the current mandatory nutrition labeling system on the nutrient intake of Koreans.

Methods

KNHANES dietary intake data (2013) of 7,242 subjects were used in the analysis. KNHANES dietary intake data were collected by a 24-hour recall method by trained dietitians. For analysis, all food items consumed by the subjects were classified into two groups (foods with mandatory labeling and other foods). In the next step, all food items were reclassified into four groups according to the food type and nutrition labeling regulations: raw material food, processed food of raw material characteristics, processed foods without mandatory labeling, and processed foods with mandatory labeling. The intake of energy and five nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat, saturated fat, and sodium) of subjects from each food group were analyzed to determine the coverage of the mandatory nutrition labeling system among the total nutrient intake of Koreans.

Results

The average intake of foods with mandatory labeling were 384g/day, which was approximately one quarter of the total daily food intake (1,544 g/day). The proportion of energy and five nutrients intake from foods with mandatory labeling was 18.1%∼47.4%. The average food intake from the 4 food groups were 745 g/day (48.3%) for the raw food materials, 54 g/day (3.5%) for the processed food of raw material characteristics, 391 g/day (25.3%) for the processed foods without mandatory labeling, and 354 g/day (22.9%) for the processed foods with mandatory labeling.

Conclusions

Although nutrition labeling is a useful tool for providing nutritional information to consumers, the coverage of current mandatory nutrition labeling system on daily nutrient intake of the Korean population is not high. To encourage informed choices and improve healthy eating habits of the Korean population, the nutrition labeling system should be expanded to include more food items and foodservice menus.

Keywords: nutrition labeling; processed food; dietary intake; Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNHANES)

Fig. 1.

Proportion of food and nutrient intake from 4 food groups according to the food type and nutrition labeling regulation

Table 1.

Food group classification according to food type and nutrition labeling regulation

Table 2.

Food and nutrient intake of Korean population according to the application of mandatory nutrition labeling

Table 3.

Dietary food and nutrient intakes from 4 food groups (according to food type and nutrition labeling regulation) by age groups

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