Impact of Nutrition Labels on Consumer Purchasing Intentions

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Choice Behavior; Food Labeling
• Interventions: Behavioral: 5-CNL; Behavioral: GDA; Behavioral: Tick; Behavioral: MTL

• Registration Number: NCT02385838
• Lead Sponsor: University of Paris 13

Brief Summary

The purpose of this interventional study is to compare the impact of four different Front-Of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labels on purchasing intentions. This study is nested in the ongoing web-based prospective observational NutriNet-Santé cohort study, including on December 2014 around 150,000 participants. The investigators will perform a five-arm randomized trial where participants will be subjected to different FOP nutrition label formats: Guidelines Daily Amount (GDA), Multiple Traffic Lights (MTL), 5-Color Nutrition Label (5-CNL), Green Tick (Tick) and a 'no label' condition. The impact of front-of-pack nutrition labels on the nutritional quality of the shopping cart will be assessed. Participants from the NutriNet-Santé cohort study will be randomly assigned to one of these five experimental conditions according to their sociodemographic characteristics.

Purchasing intentions will be assessed using an experimental web-based supermarket designed to look like a regular online grocery store. The supermarket includes 269 unique products divided into 4 categories: dairy products, processed meat/delicatessen, savory and breakfast/sugary products. Each category is then separated into specific products families like yogurt, milk, cheese, etc. for the dairy products category. Inside a food family, the selection of foodstuffs will be made to obtain a representative sample of the products commonly sold in French supermarket. For each type of products, at least two variants are proposed. Products are retailers or manufacturers branded. Categories of products that are not usually bought each week, or which are likely to be bought from different sources are not included on the web-based supermarket.

Participants are asked to simulate a shopping situation: they have to select a week worth of food for their family among proposed products. If the user is not able to find a product he/she usually buy, the instruction is to select similar product among proposed ones.

Information provided for each product is: name, price and the picture with the FOP label/or not according to the experimental condition to which the participant is allocated. A brief explanation of the FOP label used is also given.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2014-12
• Primary Completion: 2014-12
• Study First Submitted: 2015-02-26
• Study First Submitted QC: 2015-03-10
• Study First Posted: 2015-03-11
• Study Completion: 2015-06
• Status Verified: 2016-05
• Last Update Submitted: 2016-05-10
• Last Update Posted: 2016-05-11

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 11981

Inclusion Criteria

• Being a participant of the NutriNet-Santé cohort study
• Completing the preliminary questionnaire about nutrition knowledge and purchasing habits
• Completing online shopping in the experimental supermarket

Exclusion Criteria

• Not going shopping usually
• Having a difference greater than 400€ between the price of their shopping cart versus their usual weekly shopping cart budget
• Having aberrant body mass index (i.e. >55 or <11 for women and <13 for men)

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
5-Color Nutrition Label (5-CNL)	5-CNL	The 5-CNL front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Guidelines Daily Amounts (GDA)	GDA	The GDA front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Green Tick (Tick)	Tick	The Tick front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket
Mutiple Traffic Lights (MTL)	MTL	The MTL front-of-pack nutrition labeling is affixed on the front-of-pack of foodstuffs of the experimental web-based supermarket

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Overall nutritional quality of the shopping cart	up to 27 weeks	The overall nutritional quality of the shopping cart is estimated by computing the Food Standards Agency (FSA) nutrient profiling system for 100 g of the cart (i.e. sum of the FSA score of all products, divided by the number of products chosen)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Nutrients content of the shopping cart	up to 27 weeks	The nutrients content (i.e. lipids, saturated fatty acids, sugars, proteins, fibers, sodium) of the shopping cart is calculated for 100 g of the cart
Caloric value of the shopping cart	up to 27 weeks	The caloric value of the shopping cart is calculated for 100 g of the cart

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Equipe de Recherche en Epidémiologie Nutritionnelle; 🇫🇷 Bobigny, France