Introduction. Nutritional labeling informs the consumer about the type and content of nutrients, favoring the appropriate selection according to their needs or health conditions. Objective. Evaluate the reading, interpretation
and use of nutritional food labeling in the purchase decision of adults from the Villa Morra neighborhood of Asunción consulted in June 2018.

Materials
and methods. Cross-sectional descriptive study, with the application of a structured questionnaire through an interview, with questions about sociodemographic data, reading frequency, reasons for reading or not, use of nutritional labeling, content reviewed by the consumer, interpretation of the terms contribution and Percentage of Daily Value (%DV) and agreement with the implementation of front labeling.

Results. Of 100 interviewees, 73% reported reading (always and sometimes) the nutritional labeling, 48% of these use it for the selection and purchase of food and 75% of the general population you do not know or do not interpret the terms of portion and %DV. The reasons associated with reading were “concern about the health of their family” (36%), “being on a diet” (33%), and “curiosity” (23%); not reading was referred to for reasons such as “due to lack of time” (61.7%) and “because it is not well visible, it is very small” (28%); 91% think implementation of the front labeling of food as an alert method is necessary.

Conclusion. The reading of nutritional labeling is frequent, but its correct interpretation and use is not, which is why it is urgent to establish educational campaigns aimed at the population and implement front labeling to facilitate and speed up reading and interpretation.

Introduction: Food classified as snacks can be harmful and have adverse health consequences. Sugar, sodium, saturated fats and trans fats are substan- ces whose consumption is recommended to reduce.

Objectives: To quantify the content of sugar, sodium and saturated fats declared in the nutritional labeling of products sold in supermarkets.

Methods: This is a descriptive study where 200 products were selected and classified into four groups: cereal snacks, tuber snacks, dried fruit snacks and non-alcoholic beverages.

Results: After evaluating the content of sugar, sodium and saturated fats declared in the nutritional labeling, the results show that, on average, beve- rages contain 8.9g sugar/100ml, and more than 40% contained more than 10g sugar per 100ml of product. The average sugar content in cereal snacks was 22.06g/100g and the average sodium content was 311.91mg/100g. Likewise, 70% of these products contained more than 10g of sugar per 100g of product. The average content of sugar in fruit and nut snacks was 12.6g sugar/100g and the average sodium content was 250.6mg/100g of product.
The average content of saturated fats in tuber snacks was 10.2g/100g and the average sodium content was 451.00mg/100g; besides, 60% of these products exceed the maximum limits of sodium allowed by the Peruvian standard for critical nutrients (400 mg per 100g of product).

Conclusions:
Non-alcoholic beverages have high content of sugar in one third of them; the amount of sodium is below the limits established for this food group. The cereal snacks provide more sugar than recommended, as well as the saturated fats intake. The dried fruit snacks exceeded the recommendations for sugar content and one third exceeded the permitted levels of sodium content. Regarding tuber snacks, less than 50% of the analyzed products exceed the recommendations for sugar content, suggesting the need for continued public health efforts.

Consumers often report difficulties in interpreting the quantitative information contained in the nutritional labels of foods. The objective was to study the main knowledge about food labeling that the adult population of Paraguay has incorporated in the period of August 2021. This is a cross-sectional descriptive observational study in which male and female adults between 18 and 60 years old consumers of foods with nutrition labelling were evaluated. Sociodemographic data and knowledge about nutritional labeling of food was collected through an online survey with the Google forms tool. Seventy three percent was female, the average age was 36.9 years, 57.1% lived in Greater Asunción, 49.1% had a university education level, and 37.5% were health professionals. The general aspects about nutritional labeling revealed that 88.3% knew the concept, 55.3% said that they read it almost always, 84% knew that it was mandatory and 44% paid more attention to calories. When evaluating general knowledge, 91% knew the difference between expiration and preferential consumption, 71.4% knew the concept of indicative quantities, 62.5% knew which are the less healthy fats, and 71.4% correctly answered the concept of light food. The survey respondents had an adequate general knowledge about nutrition labeling, however, there was a considerable percentage of individuals who did not know the basic concepts, for which consumer-focused nutrition education interventions should be carried out.