IMPACT OF CHILEAN LAW ON FOOD LABELLING AND ADVERTISING ON CHILEAN POPULATION’S KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS FOOD LABELLING: A BEFORE-AFTER STUDY

Background and objectives: Childhood obesity represents a severe public health burden, especially in South American coun tries where the highest obesity rates worldwide have been registered. Several governments are trying to fight such epidemic by adopting food labelling interventions aimed at reducing the purchase of caloric-dense food. However, real-world data on effectiveness of such interventions are lacking, in particular in this area. The present study aimed to compare Chilean population knowledge about and attitudes towards food labelling before and after the introduction of the Chilean Law on food labelling and advertising. Methods: A Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) was performed in 2012 and 2016 on a sample of Chilean population, enrolled in 2012, using a stratified random sampling procedure. The questionnaire aimed at investigating subjects' socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes towards nutrition and food labelling, willingness-to-pay an additional fee for detailed labels. Results: One hundred and sixty-seven subjects were interviewed in both 2012 and 2016. Subjects declared to read usually food labelling, and a significantly higher proportion of subjects (32% in 2016 vs 9% in 2012, p-value 0.003) thought that food labelling is the most effective intervention fighting obesity epidemic introduced so far. Unfortunately, the proportion of subjects who provided a correct definition of GDA (guideline daily amount), "per 100 grams", and "per 100 Kcal", did not improve, along with subjects' willingness to pay (46% of subjects in 2016 stated to be not willing to pay an additional fee for more detailed labels compared to none in 2012, p-value