<![CDATA[The increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity in Indonesia over the past several years has highlighted the importance of nutrition label education as a preventive strategy to support healthier food purchasing decisions. Although nutrition information labeling has become mandatory for processed food products, consumer awareness and utilization of nutrition labels remain relatively low. This study aims to analyze the relationship between nutrition label knowledge, nutrition label reading behavior, and packaged food purchasing decisions among students of the Food Technology Study Program at Universitas Muhammadiyah Bandung. The study employed a quantitative correlational approach with a cross-sectional design. A total of 65 active students from the 2023–2025 cohorts were selected using purposive sampling based on the Slovin formula. Data were collected through a five-point Likert scale questionnaire that had passed validity and reliability tests and were analyzed using normality, linearity, Pearson correlation, and multiple correlation analyses with IBM SPSS. The results indicate that nutrition label knowledge has a positive and significant relationship with packaged food purchasing decisions (r = 0.453, p = 0.000), while nutrition label reading behavior demonstrates a stronger positive and significant relationship (r = 0.784, p = 0.000). Simultaneously, both variables are significantly associated with purchasing decisions (R = 0.798, R² = 0.637, p = 0.000). The study concludes that nutrition label reading behavior has a more dominant influence than knowledge alone, emphasizing the need to strengthen nutrition label reading habits through educational programs in academic settings to encourage healthier consumer behavior. ]]>
