Introduction: Nutritional Traffic Light (NTL) is a type of food labeling created to improve the understanding of the content of nutrients such as sodium, sugar and fat in industrialized foods. In Ecuador, the labeling of nutritional semaphore type is mandatory since 2012. Aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of the use and knowledge of the nutritional semaphore type labeling in the nutritional status in ecuadorian adolescents.
Methods: transversal study. 600 adolescents (14-18 years old) were selected. Anthropometric, physical activity (IPAQ-A) data were collected, information on the use and knowledge of the labeling was collected through a questionnaire prepared for this purpose. The potential relationships use and knowledge, and weight status and diet were determined by logistic regresion adjusted by gender, age and physical activity level using STATA software.
Results: 46% of adolescents perform moderate physical activity. 64% of the sample presented excess body weight measured by body fat percentage. The average energy consumption was 2891 Kcal (men) and 2551 (women). More than 84% of adolescents report adequately understanding the information of the NTL; 64% of adolescents report consuming their food based on NTL. A negative correlation (r = -0.185, p = 0.032) was found between the knowledge of the NTL of the adolescents and waist circumference and a negative correlation (r = 0.227; p = 0.008) between the consumption of fat and the knowledge of the NTL.
Conclusions: Adequate knowledge about NTL is related to a lower waist circumference and lower fat consumption in Ecuadorian adolescents.

KNOWLEDGE AND USE OF “NUTRITIONAL TRAFFIC LIGHT STYLE” LABELING IN THE NUTRITIONAL STATUS AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY OF ECUADORIAN ADOLESCENTS”