Trial reportThe international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity2023
Traffic-light front-of-pack environmental labelling across food categories triggers more environmentally friendly food choices: a randomised controlled trial in virtual reality supermarket.
Trial report in The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04909372 (Impact of Environmental Labelling on Food Choices), which is not on this map. Cited by 11 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Impact of Environmental Labelling on Food Choices : a Randomized Controlled Trial in a Virtual Reality Supermarket
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 41 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review on how environmental sustainability and social responsibility food labels influence consumers' food choices and purchasing decisions.Public health nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Emerging Technologies for Investigating Food Consumer Behavior: A Systematic Review.Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety · 2025Pooled it
- Eco-Focused Menu Labels on Full Meal Orders From Fast-Food Restaurants: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA health forum · 2026Trial
- The Impact of Restaurant Menu Eco Labels on Consumer Meal Selections: An RCT.American journal of preventive medicine · 2026Trial
- The impact of calorie labelling and proportional pricing on out of home food orders: a randomised controlled trial study using a virtual food and drink delivery app.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2023Trial
- Twenty years of behavioral nutrition- A reflection on the road less travelled.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Article
- Article
- The potential of Nutri-Score to discriminate foods according to environmental impact.European journal of nutrition · 2025Article
- Do Consumers Value Agri-Food Industries' Environmental Commitment? The Case of the Table Olive Industry.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Enhancing consumer sensory science approach through augmented virtuality.Current research in food science · 2024Article
- Strengths and weaknesses of food eco-labeling: a review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundFood systems highly contribute to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and shifting towards more environmentally friendly diets is urgently needed. Enabling consumers to compare the environmental impact of food products at point-of-purchase with front-of-pack labelling could be a promising strategy to trigger more environmentally friendly food choices. This strategy remained to be tested.
methodsThe effect of a new traffic-light front-of-pack environmental label on food choices was tested in a 2-arm randomised controlled trial in a virtual reality supermarket. Participants (n = 132) chose food products to compose two main meals for an everyday meal scenario and for an environmentally friendly meal scenario with or without the label. The environmental label (ranging from A: green/lowest impact, to E: red/highest impact) was based on the Environmental Footprint (EF) single score calculation across food categories. The effect of the label on the environmental impact of food choices in each scenario was tested using linear mixed models.
resultsIn the everyday meal scenario, the environmental impact of meals was lower in the label condition than in the no label condition (-0.17 ± 0.07 mPt/kg, p = 0.012). This reduction was observed at no nutritional, financial nor hedonic cost. The effectiveness of the label can be attributed to a change in the food categories chosen: less meat-based and more vegetarian meals were chosen with the label. In the environmentally friendly meal scenario, we demonstrated that the label provided new information to the participants as they were able to further reduce the environmental impact of their food choices with the label (-0.19 ± 0.07 mPt/kg, p = 0.005).
conclusionsImplementing a front-of-pack environmental label on food products in real supermarkets could increase awareness of the environmental impact of food and contribute to drive more environmentally friendly food choices.
trial registrationThe study protocol was pre-registered prior to data collection at Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04909372).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.