Traffic-light front-of-pack environmental labelling across food categories triggers more environmentally friendly food choices: a randomised controlled trial in virtual reality supermarket

Laura Arrazat; Stéphanie Chambaron; Gaëlle Arvisenet; Isabelle Goisbault; Jean-Christophe Charrier; Sophie Nicklaus; Lucile Marty

doi:10.1186/s12966-023-01410-8

Traffic-light front-of-pack environmental labelling across food categories triggers more environmentally friendly food choices: a randomised controlled trial in virtual reality supermarket

Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2023 Jan 26;20(1):7. doi: 10.1186/s12966-023-01410-8.

Authors

Laura Arrazat¹, Stéphanie Chambaron¹, Gaëlle Arvisenet¹, Isabelle Goisbault², Jean-Christophe Charrier², Sophie Nicklaus¹, Lucile Marty³

Affiliations

¹ Centre Des Sciences Du Goût Et de L'Alimentation, CNRS, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 17 Rue Sully, 21065, Dijon Cedex, France.
² Strategir - R&D and Image and Technology Department, 5 Rue Foy, 33000, Bordeaux, France.
³ Centre Des Sciences Du Goût Et de L'Alimentation, CNRS, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, 17 Rue Sully, 21065, Dijon Cedex, France. lucile.marty@inrae.fr.

Abstract

Background: Food systems highly contribute to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and shifting towards more environmentally friendly diets is urgently needed. Enabling consumers to compare the environmental impact of food products at point-of-purchase with front-of-pack labelling could be a promising strategy to trigger more environmentally friendly food choices. This strategy remained to be tested.

Methods: The effect of a new traffic-light front-of-pack environmental label on food choices was tested in a 2-arm randomised controlled trial in a virtual reality supermarket. Participants (n = 132) chose food products to compose two main meals for an everyday meal scenario and for an environmentally friendly meal scenario with or without the label. The environmental label (ranging from A: green/lowest impact, to E: red/highest impact) was based on the Environmental Footprint (EF) single score calculation across food categories. The effect of the label on the environmental impact of food choices in each scenario was tested using linear mixed models.

Results: In the everyday meal scenario, the environmental impact of meals was lower in the label condition than in the no label condition (-0.17 ± 0.07 mPt/kg, p = 0.012). This reduction was observed at no nutritional, financial nor hedonic cost. The effectiveness of the label can be attributed to a change in the food categories chosen: less meat-based and more vegetarian meals were chosen with the label. In the environmentally friendly meal scenario, we demonstrated that the label provided new information to the participants as they were able to further reduce the environmental impact of their food choices with the label (-0.19 ± 0.07 mPt/kg, p = 0.005).

Conclusions: Implementing a front-of-pack environmental label on food products in real supermarkets could increase awareness of the environmental impact of food and contribute to drive more environmentally friendly food choices.

Trial registration: The study protocol was pre-registered prior to data collection at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04909372).

Keywords: Environmental labelling; Food choice; Supermarket; Virtual reality.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Choice Behavior
Consumer Behavior
Food Labeling* / methods
Food Preferences
Humans
Meals
Nutritive Value
Supermarkets*

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT04909372