ProDij – Action 13: Healthy and sustainable diets for all
Creators: name: Bellassen, Valentin
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Nutrition
subject: Life Sciences
subject: Economics
subject: Environmental Studies
subject: Food Science
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: ProDij is a project launched by the city of Dijon, France, in 2020. It is divided in different “Actions” and this work is part of Action n°13 which focuses on healthy and sustainable food for everyone. Human health and climate change mitigation are two major socio-economic challenges. Both share different factors and one of them is diet. By improving dietary habits, we can potentially improve health and the environment. Thus, the aim of this project is to give disadvantaged populations a better conception and a better access to healthy and pro-environmental food (such as fruits, vegetables and legumes) through information, empowerment and financial aid (food vouchers). The objective is to analyse dietary habits from subjects of social grocery stores (SGS) of the metropolitan area of Dijon and look for solutions to improve their diets in terms of health and environment. A secondary objective behind this project is to create a blueprint of what can be done at the policy level to improve people’s dietary habits. The idea of starting with disadvantaged populations is due to the fact that these populations face not only food insecurity but also financial stress. This generates a vicious circle where diets, physical as well as mental health and the environment get degraded. Thus, shifting towards healthy and sustainable diets may be more difficult for these populations than for more advantaged ones. This project is divided in two main campaigns where we collect data through surveys and food supplies booklets in two periods. A field experiment is conducted in two social grocery stores between these periods. Basically, it corresponds to a Difference-in-Difference analysis of Randomized Control Trials to look whether or not some tools from economics can work to improve diets. The analysis is done by researchers of INRAE. The first campaign took place between November 2021 and March 2022. A total number of 153 subjects (93 from one SGS and 60 from the other) were recruited. Though, only 114 finished the experiment. Therefore, we had an attrition rate of 25%. The aim of this campaign was to collect data on the effectiveness of nudges. These nudges were implemented during the experiment to guide people towards healthier and more sustainable diets by raising their awareness through information and giving them more empowerment when it comes to food. The second campaign is focused on the effect of nudges accompanied by a monetary incentive: food vouchers. It will take place from November 2022 to March 2023. The aim of this campaign is to collect data on the effectiveness of nudges enforced by a monetary incentive. During the second campaign we will also conduct the experiment with people helped by the Community Centre for Social Action (CCSA) of the city of Dijon. The difference with this new population is that they only face the monetary incentive and not nudges, but also that their income is a little bit higher than the one of the SGS’s population.