Clinical trial NCT04152785: Measurement of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Meals of a University Food Operator
Official title: Measurement of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Meals of a University Food Operator
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Food Selection
Keywords: environmental concerns
nutrient profiling
Lead sponsor: Laval University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Ministère de l'environnement et lutte contre les changements climatiques
First posted: 2019-11-05
Enrollment: 160
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Université Laval wishes to raise awareness among students and employees in the university community so that they become aware of the impacts of their consumption choices by equipping them to adopt consumption behaviours that are favourable to the environment and their health. To do this, it is necessary to assess consumers' perception of the information available when choosing a meal to determine, among other things, whether knowledge of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions influences their selections. In addition to this evaluation criterion, consumer perception of the nutritional quality of food will also be assessed. The nutritional composition of the meals of the characterized week will make it possible to calculate, using a nutritional profiling tool, the nutritional quality score of each meal of the day.

Detailed description: This study consists of an individual meeting with each participant. This meeting will last approximately 1 hour during which each subject will choose a meal and complete various questionnaires. Subjects (male or female) will be randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions ("GHG", "nutrition", "GHG+nutrition" and "no logo"). Since subjects could change their eating behaviours if they knew the true purpose of the study, they will be deliberately misled when they enter the study. Participants will be recruited to participate in a market research study in which they will be invited to taste and evaluate a new meal for the cafeteria. At the end of the session, each participant will be informed of the actual objective of the study.

In this context, the general objectives of this second phase of the project are therefore:

1. Evaluate consumer perceptions of the available information on the GHG score (in equivalent C02), the nutritional quality score and the eco-efficiency score (combination of GHG + nutrition), and;
2. Determine if the presence of information (logo on the different scores) influences food choice and consumption among Université Laval students and staff.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Study or work at Université Laval

Exclusion Criteria:

* People taking drugs that may affect appetite (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics or corticosteroids);
* People with food allergies or intolerances, and pregnant and lactating women;
* People with food aversions to more than 20% of the main meal ingredients from the menu.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Consumer perceptions of the meal given the information available on the GHG score, the nutritional quality score and the eco-efficiency score (combination of GHG + nutrition) vs no logo.
timeFrame: Within the year after the beginning of the study
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Food choice by the students and staff at Université Laval depending on the presence of information (logo on the different scores).
timeFrame: Within the year after the beginning of the study
measure: Amount of the meal consumed by the students and staff at Université Laval depending on the presence of information (logo on the different scores).
timeFrame: Within the year after the beginning of the study
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Québec city
country: Canada
facility: Institute of Nutraceuticals and Functionnal Foods (INAF)
state: Quebec
Study officials:
References: