Impact of Front-of-pack Nutrition Labelling on Consumer Purchases

December 1, 2015 updated by: Serge HERCBERG, University of Paris 13

Impact of Front-of-pack Nutrition Labelling on Consumer Purchases - Controlled Trial in Shopper Laboratory Stores

Introducing Front-Of-Pack (FOP) nutrition labelling, providing simplified information on nutritional content at a glance, in order to help consumer make informed choices, has been identified as of major interest by public health specialists. In France, a recent report to the Minister of Health has proposed the introduction of a Front-of-Pack nutrition label, the 5-Colour nutrition label. Existing studies on FOP labels mainly focused on assessment of consumers' acceptability/liking and understanding. If most of the studies on purchasing behavior, conducted in real supermarkets, suggested a positive effect of FOP labels on consumers' food choices, the impact of the 5-CNL has not been evaluated.

The main objective is to evaluate the impact of a Front-of-pack nutrition label, the 5-Colour Nutrition Label on consumer purchases in a controlled environment close to real-world settings. Nutritional quality of the items purchased will be compared using the Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA score). The study relies on a comparison across three independent samples :

  • Control group: The current situation with current way brands show or not nutritional information on Front of Pack (FoP) - without consumer information
  • Intervention n°1: Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods. No additional consumer information
  • Intervention n°3: Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods. Additional consumer information specifically targeting nutritional information and explaining the 5-CNL will be performed (this information will consist in a concept shown to respondents before the shopping session).

Participants are recruited in the street through quota sampling, based on criteria of gender, age and purchasing habits on the products categories selected for the introduction of the FOP nutrition label.

The study relies on LabStores®, i.e. shopper laboratory stores, which are controlled study spaces in which a store is recreated in reality.The real lab store mimics a store environment with real shelves, product, and cash register, and presents several product categories in a realistic shopping environment. At the end of the shopping session, the respondents proceed to the cashier but don't actually pay for their purchases.

The selected foodstuffs come from actual retailers' brand products available on the French market. Three categories of products were selected, based on expected variability in nutritional quality of the products and logistic criteria (exclusion of fresh products):

  • Breakfast cereals
  • Sweet biscuits
  • Salty snacks The impact of the different labels on nutritional quality (FSA score, calories, lipids, saturated fatty acids, sugars, proteins, fibre, sodium) of the shopping cart is investigated using one way ANOVA. Pairwise comparisons among FOP labels are assessed by using Tukey's multiple comparisons tests.

All tests of significance are two-sided, and a P value <0.05 is considered significant. Statistical analyses are performed using SAS software (version 9.3; SAS Institute Inc.).

Study Overview

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

900

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Adults >18 years old
  • Usually purchasing the selected categories of foods (Breakfast cereals, appetizers, biscuits)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not used to purchasing the selected categories of foods

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control
The current situation with current way brands show or not nutritional information on Front of Pack (FoP) - without consumer information
Experimental: Intervention n°1
Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods. No additional consumer information
Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods.
Experimental: Intervention n°2
Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods. Additional consumer information specifically targeting nutritional information and explaining the 5-CNL will be performed (this information will consist in a concept shown to respondents before the shopping session).
Introduction of a Front-of-pack nutrition label (5-CNL) on selected categories of foods.
Information specifically targeting nutritional information and explaining the 5-CNL is presented to the subject (this information will consist in a concept shown to respondents before the shopping session).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
FSA score to evaluate nutritional quality of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Mean Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA score) of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Energy content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Energy content (Kcal) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Saturated fatty acid content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Saturated fatty acids content (g) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Sodium content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Sodium content (mg) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Sugar content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Sugar content (mg) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Protein content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Protein content (mg) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Fiber content of the items purchased
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Fiber content (mg) for 100g of the items purchased
Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Number of purchased items labelled in green/yellow/orange/pink/red
Time Frame: Estimated time frame 6 weeks
Estimated time frame 6 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Collaborators

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

October 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 28, 2015

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 8, 2015

First Posted (Estimate)

September 11, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 2, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 1, 2015

Last Verified

December 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • EREN-BVA

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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