Consumer Awareness, Knowledge, Understanding, and Use of Nutrition Labels in Africa: A Systematic Narrative Review

The purpose of nutrition information on a nutrition label is to communicate to consumers the nutritional content of prepackaged foods so that they would be able to identify healthy foods before purchase. Many systematic reviews in the area of consumer awareness, knowledge, understanding, and use of nutrition labels have focused on the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, and little attention has been given to African countries. To review the state of consumer awareness, knowledge, understanding, and use of nutrition labels within the African region, identify barriers to the use of nutrition labels, identify consumers who are more likely to use labels, and assess the factors that affect purchasing decisions. Searches were done in electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Web of Science) and the reference lists of relevant research articles (back referencing). The review was limited to cross-sectional peer-reviewed research articles which were published in the English Language between January 2000 and June 2022. Twenty-six peer-reviewed papers from 10 African countries that met our inclusion criteria are included in this systematic review. The overall crude means of levels of awareness, knowledge, understanding, and use of nutrition labels were found to be 74.2%, 56.4%, 45.3%, and 69.1%, respectively. Consumer levels of knowledge and understanding of nutrition labels across the 10 African countries were low compared to the awareness and use of nutrition labels. Plain Language Summary The purpose of nutrition information on a nutrition label is to communicate to consumers the nutritional content of prepackaged foods so that they can identify healthy foods before making purchases. In this study, we aimed to review the state of consumer awareness, knowledge, understanding, and use of nutrition labels within the African region. Searches were done in electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar, Web of Science) and the reference lists of relevant research articles (back referencing). Twenty-six peer-reviewed papers from 10 African countries that met our inclusion criteria are included in this systematic narrative review. Our finding that consumer levels of knowledge and understanding of nutrition labels were low suggests the need for specific policies and public health interventions that would improve consumer understanding of nutrition information on labels will be more effective in the African