Testing "Ultraprocessed" Front-of-package Label Among Brazilian Consumers

August 8, 2023 updated by: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Testing the Impact of an "Ultraprocessed" Front-of-package Warning Label Among Brazilian Consumers

The goal of this experiment is to test the effects an "ultraprocessed" warning label on foods and beverages among Brazilian consumers. The main questions it aims to answer are:

  • Do "ultraprocessed" warnings affect Brazilian consumers' intention to purchase products?
  • Do "ultraprocessed" warnings affect Brazilian consumers' product perceptions?

Participants will see images of four products carrying either nutrient warning labels (which are currently mandatory in Brazil) or nutrient warning labels alongside an experimental warning label informing that the product is ultraprocessed. Participants will then answer survey questions about each product. Researchers will compare responses between both arms to determine if the "ultraprocessed" warning significantly changes the effect of nutrient warnings.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1007

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27516
        • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion criteria:

  • 18 years or older,
  • residing in Brazil,
  • responsible for at least 50% of the household's grocery purchases.

Exclusion criteria:

  • involvement in any pre-testing.

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

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Nutrient warnings
Individuals in this trial arm will see images of products carrying nutrient warnings that are currently included in Brazil's front-of-package labeling scheme.
Behavioral: Nutrient warning labels
Inclusion of nutrient warning labels, which are currently mandatory in Brazil, to images of food products.
Experimental: Nutrient and ultraprocessed warnings
Individuals in this trial arm will see images of products carrying nutrient warnings that are currently included in Brazil's front-of-package labeling scheme and an experimental warning stating that the product is ultraprocessed.
Behavioral: Nutrient and ultraprocessed warning labels
Inclusion of nutrient warning labels, which are currently mandatory in Brazil, and an experimental ultraprocessed warning label to images of food products.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Purchase intentions
Time Frame: Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
How likely the participant would be to buy products will be measured by survey. Response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher likelihood of buying products.
Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Product healthfulness perceptions
Time Frame: Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
How healthy products seem to the participant will be measured by survey. Response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived product healthfulness.
Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
Product processing status perceptions
Time Frame: Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
Whether the participant believes products are ultraprocessed will be measured by survey. Responses options are "no," "yes," and "I'm not sure."
Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
Message effectiveness perceptions
Time Frame: Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.
Perceived message effectiveness of the study labels will be measured by survey through a three-item scale. Items inquire about how much the labels discourage the participant from wanting to consume the products, how much the labels make the participant concerned about the health effects of consuming the products, and how much the labels make consuming the products seem unpleasant. Response options are on a 1 to 5 scale, with higher scores representing a higher perceived message effectiveness of the study labels.
Online survey within 20 minutes following completion of a ~10 minute shopping task.

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Collaborators

The Bloomberg Family Foundation, Inc.

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Lindsey Taillie, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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.

General Publications

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

May 24, 2023

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 28, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

June 28, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 15, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

May 6, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 14, 2023

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 8, 2023

Last Verified

August 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23-0151

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

A deidentified dataset and analytic code will be uploaded to a public repository upon publication of the study.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Upon publication of the study.

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

No access criteria. The dataset and analytic code will be made publicly available at Open Science Framework.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

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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