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Title
Experimental study examining whether front of pack labels help consumers identify healthier choices
Purpose
To examine whether front of pack labels (FOPL) help consumers identify healthier choices under experimental conditions in a UK sample, and explore whether this is influenced by socio-demographic and contextual factors.
Background
FOPL is used to encourage healthier food purchasing and consumption, partly through increasing knowledge about the healthiness of food options. Evidence suggests that FOPL is effective at improving nutrition knowledge. There are many FOPL schemes in use worldwide and it is not clear which is most effective at improving knowledge in UK populations. There are also numerous other factors which might influence engagement with and effectiveness of FOPL, including socio-demographic factors (e.g. socio-economic status, age, sex, ethnicity) and contextual factors (e.g. food packaging, size).
Aims and methodology
An online experiment with a nationally representative sample will be carried out. The methodology will be based on established methods (Egnell et al, 2018; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10101542). The study will examine whether FOPL impacts ability to identify the healthiness of foods and will explore whether this is influenced by these socio-demographic and contextual factors.
Timing
- June 2021 (Academic publication to follow)