**7. Food and nutritional labelling**

Food and nutrition labels are one of the most common sources of knowledge about food products [3, 9, 13]. These labels are essential as they assist consumers in making healthy choices [22]. Therefore, consumers are encouraged to use food and nutritional labels as part of their healthy dietary habits.

Debates have emerged that added sugars tend to be hidden in the food label [23]. This contributes to consumers having difficulties in comprehending the level of added sugars by looking at the food label, as this is usually not depicted [24].

Emerging questions from food label studies range from looking at the use of food labels, whether that information is translated into knowledge and if that knowledge is of any practical value to the purchasing power of a consumer [25–28]. The use of food and nutrition labels is attributed to the nutrition knowledge of a consumer and is affected by socio-demographic factors [29].

The ineffectiveness of labels to perform the functions that they are supposed to can be attributed to two factors, the motivation to use the information and the confusing information on food and nutrition labels [3, 5, 9, 10, 15, 19, 30].

Consumers are influenced by various social factors; this is especially concerning their food behaviour and choices. An individual's background, personal beliefs, values and opinions play an important role in not only what they choose to purchase and consume but also whether food and nutrition labels can influence their food behaviour [5]. Therefore, consumers have been found to take from food labels what is most relevant and convenient for them and disregard information that they may not believe or makes them uncomfortable [5]. A study conducted by Graham and Laska [31] discovered that there was a relationship between the frequent use of nutrition labels and food behaviour. By frequently using nutrition labels, consumers value their health and dietary intake [31].

The level of knowledge of added sugar in food is linked to the use of nutritional labels. Often the frequent use of these labels influences the purchasing power of the consumers which helps them in making healthier choices about their beverage intake. Demographic factors such as gender and the body mass index (BMI) are considered when assessing the level of knowledge of added sugar in SSBs. This is due to the difference in their nutritional needs as it is recommended that men consume slightly more sugar than women.
