In Food and Nutritional Sciences Approved: 6 Semester Credits

The prevalence of obesity has increased in the United States which may be due to increasing food portion sizes. The use of the food label is recommended to make people aware of the portion distortions. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of the food label use with selected portion sizes by college students. One hundred twelve participants were asked about their typical portion size using life-sized food photographs. Also, they were asked about the frequency of label use and the understanding of the serving size as well as the calorie information on the label using the food label. It was found that approximately 40 % or more students selected larger portion sizes compared to the reference sizes. The majority of students frequently read the label as well as used the label when consuming food. Over 45% of students correctly identified the serving size whereas over 65%.of students 111 estimated the correct amount of calories. Although students read the food labels frequently as well as understood the label information, they did not effectively interpret the information for selection ofportion sizes. However, frequency ofuse of serving size information with health consciousness helped students to select smaller snack portions. I