摘要：Food-label .check before buy” has been associated with making healthy food choices and shows the efficiency of the economical effort made when investing in nutritional labels. This study describes the prevalence of checking food labels and its association with demographic factors, purchasing behaviors and body mass index in a random group of Romanians. Descriptive tests and logistic regression were used to estimate factors with influence on the habit. Results showed that 81,1 % of the respondents check labels on a regular basis, the habit being mostly connected with being middle-aged, woman, living in a couple and in a big town, and having a greater preoccupation regarding body weight. 49,2 % check for nutritional facts and health claims, the rest of the respondents are interested just in the “best before” element. The fact that a half of the respondents are preoccupied by nutritional facts is important because these people can be a real target group for novel, health and bio food. Taking in account the fact that nutritional labeling, health claims and bio products have been recently introduced on the Romanian market (the nutrition labeling process has been started in 2007), the percent is not disappointing and shows a real potential of growth for the .health food” market. Efforts should be made in order to determine how all consumers can use and understand more detailed label information, especially nutritional one.
