Environmental Labelling in a Virtual Supermarket

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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A 2-arm randomised control trial (with and without labels) will be conducted to test the effects of an environmental label on food choices in a virtual supermarket. A sample of 130 participants will take part in two shopping tasks: 1/ selection of 3 products to prepare a home-made dish, and 2/ selection of a ready-to-eat dish. These two tasks will be repeated for two scenarios: 1/ participants will be asked to select the foods for usual meals, and 2/ participants will be asked to select the foods for environmentally-friendly meals. This experimental design will allow to compare food choices in the presence vs. the absence of an environmental label and to investigate whether the label is informative and likely to help individuals to choose more environmental-friendly food options when explicitly asked to do so.

Detailed Description
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See attached protocol documents

Official Title
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Impact of Environmental Labelling on Food Choices : a Randomized Controlled Trial in a Virtual Reality Supermarket

Conditions
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Diet, Healthy, Food Selection

Intervention / Treatment
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* Behavioral: Labelling


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Responsible for a substantial proportion of household grocery shopping Fluent in French Exclusion Criteria: Dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, allergies, intolerance, …) Uncorrected eye problems Known symptoms of nausea and dizziness when wearing a virtual reality headset

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

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


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: No labelling<br>Food products without any label in the virtual supermarket. | |
| Experimental: Environmental labelling<br>Food products with an environmental label in the virtual supermarket. | Behavioral: Labelling<br>* Food products in the virtual supermarket will display an environmental label on their packaging, from A (lowest impact) to E (highest impact). The label categories are based on the Product Environmental Footprint, a score recommended by the European Commission that evaluates the environmental impact of a food product based on 16 indicators calculated throughout the life cycle of the products (e.g., climate change in kg carbon dioxide eq, marine eutrophication in kg N eq, land and water use or acidification in mol H+ eq). Instructions will introduce and explain the environmental label to the participants as In the virtual supermarket, each product will have an environmental label. This label describes whether a product had a negative impact on the environment (green house gaz emissions, water resources depletion, etc.) from A, lowest impact, to E, highest impact.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Environmental impact of the food items selected | The environmental impact of the food selection will be calculated using the Product Environmental Footprint score for 100g of products throughout their life cycle. | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Familiarity for the food items selected | The familiarity for each food selected will be assessed using a discrete scale from 1 (never purchased) to 5 (very often purchased). | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 
| Liking for the food items selected | The liking for each food selected will be assessed using a discrete scale from 1 (I don't like it at all) to 10 (I like it very much). | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 
| Nutritional quality of the food items selected | The nutritional quality of the food selection will be calculated using the score from the British Food Standards Agency nutrient profiling system (FSA score). | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 
| Level of processing of the food items selected | The level of processing of the food selection will be estimated using a food classification system based on food processing (NOVA). | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 
| Price of the food items selected | Price of the food selection will be calculated per 100 kcal. | 15 minutes (the time frame denotes time taken to make the food choice task and there is no follow up) | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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labelling, food choice