Consumer susceptibility to front-of-package food labeling: Validation and reliability assessment in Turkish

Imagine walking into a massive supermarket where the aisles stretch on forever, packed with thousands of different snacks, drinks, and meals. It's a bit like stepping into a library where every book has a confusing, tiny code on the back cover that only a librarian can read. That's what shopping for food often feels like without help. To make things easier, many products now have "Front-of-Package" (FOP) labels. Think of these as the bright, bold movie posters on the front of a DVD case, giving you a quick summary of the plot (or in this case, the nutrition) without having to read the fine print on the back. Some of these labels are like traffic lights, using colors to warn you if something is high in sugar or salt, while others are simple logos that say, "Hey, this is a healthy choice!"

But here's the big question: Do we actually pay attention to these posters? Do they change what we buy, or do we just walk right past them? Scientists call this "susceptibility"—how easily a person's brain gets hooked on these labels. While we know these labels exist, we didn't have a good way to measure how much different people actually care about them, especially in Turkey. This study is like building a new, super-accurate ruler to measure that exact feeling. It asks: "How sensitive are people to these front-of-package signs?" and checks if the ruler works perfectly in the Turkish language.

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The Mission: Building a Better Ruler

The researchers, Ayfer Beyaz Coşkun and Gülcan Bahçecioğlu Turan from Fırat University, decided to take a special measuring tool called the "Consumer Susceptibility to Front-of-Package Food Labeling" (CSFL) scale and translate it into Turkish. Originally created in English, this scale is like a seven-question quiz designed to see how much a person relies on those front-of-package labels when they are shopping. The goal was to make sure this quiz worked just as well for Turkish speakers as it did for English speakers.

They gathered a group of 880 adults from family health centers in Elazığ, Turkey, between September and December 2025. These weren't just random people; the team made sure to include a mix of ages (from 18 to 65), genders, and education levels to get a true picture of the population. Before the big test, they even ran a "practice round" with 30 people to make sure the questions were easy to understand, like a dress rehearsal before opening night.

The Test: Does the Ruler Measure Up?

To see if their Turkish version of the scale was any good, the researchers put it through a series of rigorous checks, kind of like stress-testing a new bridge.

First, they asked a panel of experts—nutritionists, language specialists, and scale developers—to review the questions. They wanted to know if the questions made sense and if they were culturally appropriate. The experts gave the scale a huge thumbs-up, with scores ranging from 0.94 to 1.00 out of 1.00, meaning the content was spot-on.

Next, they looked at the math to see if the questions actually measured one single thing (sensitivity to labels) or if they were all over the place. They used a statistical method called Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Imagine trying to see if a group of friends are all part of the same club. The math showed that all seven questions in the scale were indeed "members of the same club," fitting together perfectly into a single idea. The numbers were strong, with "factor loadings" (a measure of how well each question fits) ranging from 0.700 to 0.880. Since none of the numbers were low, they didn't have to throw any questions out; the whole team stayed.

The Results: A Rock-Solid Tool

The scale passed every test with flying colors.

• Reliability (Consistency): When the researchers asked 32 of the same people to take the test again two weeks later, the results were almost identical. The "Intraclass Correlation Coefficient" (ICC) was 0.969. In the world of measurements, anything above 0.90 is considered "excellent." It's like asking someone to guess the weight of a watermelon twice in a row and getting the exact same answer both times.
• Internal Consistency: The team also checked if the questions agreed with each other. They found a score of 0.923 (Cronbach's alpha) and 0.921 (McDonald's omega). These are very high numbers, suggesting the scale is a very reliable tool.
• Real-World Connection: To make sure the scale actually measured what it was supposed to, they compared it with another known test called the "Food Label Reading Attitude Scale." They found a moderate, positive link (r = 0.503). This means that people who scored high on the new scale (very sensitive to labels) also tended to have a positive attitude toward reading labels in general. It's like finding that people who love checking movie ratings also tend to read the back of the DVD case.

Who Cares About Labels?

The study also looked at how different groups of people scored. They found that education level mattered. People with higher education (university degrees and above) tended to have higher scores on the scale, meaning they were more sensitive to front-of-package labels. Interestingly, having taken a specific nutrition class didn't change the score much, but having a general higher education did.

The average age of the participants was 28.23 years, and their average Body Mass Index (BMI) was 24.31 kg/m², which falls in the "normal" range. This was a bit lower than the national average for Turkey, likely because the study group was younger than the general population.

The Bottom Line

The researchers concluded that the Turkish version of the CSFL scale is a valid and reliable tool. It's short, easy to use, and works perfectly for measuring how much Turkish adults care about those front-of-package food labels. Because it only has seven questions, it's a quick and handy tool for doctors, researchers, and anyone studying how people make food choices. It fills a gap, giving scientists a new way to understand how to help people make healthier decisions in a world full of confusing food choices.