Do Sustainability Labels Lead to More Sustainable and Healthier Food Choices?

Food Selection Clinical Trial

— Climate Labels  

Official title:

Do Sustainability Labels Lead to More Sustainable and Healthier Food Choices?

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05482204
• Other study ID #: IRB00018722
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: March 30, 2022
• Est. completion date: April 13, 2022

Study information

• Verified date: July 2022
• Source: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study tests the effect of two climate change menu labels, one indicating 'low climate impact' and the other indicating 'high climate impact' on ordering choices and perceptions of healthfulness of food ordered in an online randomized experiment.

Description:

The objective of this study is to examine how climate impact menu labels influence US adults' ordering and perceptions via an online randomized experiment. Participants were randomized to view one of 3 fast food menus online and then choose an item that they would like to order. One menu 'control' had QR code labels, the second had "low climate impact" labels on items with lower greenhouse gas emissions (vegetarian, chicken or fish items), the third had "high climate impact" labels on beef items. After the ordering task participants answered questions about what label they saw on the menu, how healthy they thought the item they ordered was, and how much the label discouraged them from eating high climate impact items.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 5055
• Est. completion date: April 13, 2022
• Est. primary completion date: April 13, 2022
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older
• Member of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) Amerispeak Panel

Exclusion Criteria:

• <18 years of age
• completed the survey in < 1/3 of the median duration
• skipped or refused more than 50% of the survey questions

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Attitude
• Food Selection

Intervention

Other:
• Low Climate Impact label
Menu labels indicating low climate impact on chicken, fish, and vegetarian food items on a simulated online fast food menu.
• High Climate Impact label
Menu labels indicating high climate impact on beef food items on a simulated online fast food menu.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health	Baltimore	Maryland

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health	Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Sustainable vs. unsustainable selection from the menu	The primary outcome is a binary indicator of whether or not the participant selected during the ordering task was a sustainable (chicken, fish, or vegetarian) menu item (1) vs. an unsustainable (beef) menu item (0).; Before viewing the fast food menu, participants were asked to imagine they are at a restaurant and about to order dinner. They were asked to select one item they want to order for themselves. Participants could select one item to order before moving on.	1 minute
Secondary	Perceptions of healthfulness	Perceptions of how healthy the meal ordered was (on a scale of 1=very unhealthy to 7=very healthy)	< 1 minute
Secondary	Perceived Message Effectiveness (PME)	This outcomes used 1 item from the 3 item UNC-PME scale to measure how much the assigned label discouraged the participant from wanting to consume items with a high impact on climate change. Responses are measured on a 5-point Likert scale from 1=Strongly disagree to 5= strongly agree. The exact question text is: "How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Information on the menu discouraged me from wanting to consume menu items with a high impact on climate change."	<1 minute
Secondary	Nutrition Profile Index of ordered item	The Nutrition Profile Index score (0-100) of the ordered item	< 1 minute