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

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Food Selection; Attitude
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Low Climate Impact label; Other: High Climate Impact label

Detailed 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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 5055
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21205
      • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Participation Criteria

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:

• 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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Control (QR) label; QR label on all menu items
Experimental: Low Climate Impact Label; 'Low Climate Impact' label on all chicken, fish and vegetarian menu items	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.
Experimental: High climate Impact Label; 'High Climate Impact' label on all beef menu items	Other: High Climate Impact label; Menu labels indicating high climate impact on beef food items on a simulated online fast food menu.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceptions of healthfulness	Perceptions of how healthy the meal ordered was (on a scale of 1=very unhealthy to 7=very healthy)	< 1 minute
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
Nutrition Profile Index of ordered item	The Nutrition Profile Index score (0-100) of the ordered item	< 1 minute

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Collaborators: Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Julia A Wolfson, PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 30, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 13, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): April 13, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 27, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 29, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): August 1, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 1, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 29, 2022
• Last Verified: July 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00018722

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Yes
• IPD Plan Description: After 1 year de-identified data will be made available in partnership with the Open Science Foundation.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: 1 year after study completion.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: Study Protocol

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No