Labelling of food products as a determinant of shopping decisions

Proper labelling is an important source of information for the consumer and it is also the fulfilment of an obligation imposed on manufacturers, distributors and importers. Poland’s accession to the European Union boosted the importance of legibility of information and correct labelling in compliance with the valid regulations. The objective of this study was to examine the awareness of a contemporary consumer with respect to labelling food product packaging and the effect of encoding on product purchase. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 130 respondents (male and female). It found that a considerable portion of Polish consumers pay attention to how food product packages are labelled, particularly for dairy products, meat products and beverages. Consumers regarded the absence of information in Polish and placing illegible signs on labels as the most important packaging defects.