Testing front-of-package warnings to discourage red meat consumption: a randomized experiment with US meat consumers

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

Carmen E. Prestemon¹  Marissa G. Hall²  Lindsey Smith Taillie³  Anna H. Grummon⁴  Wilma Waterlander⁵  Lindsay M. Jaacks⁶  Christina Chauvenet⁷ 

[1] Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 123 West Franklin Street, 27516, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 123 West Franklin Street, 27516, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 27599, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, 27599, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, 123 West Franklin Street, 27516, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, 27599, Chapel Hill, NC, USA;Center for Population and Development Studies, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, 02138, Cambridge, MA, USA;Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, 02215, Boston, MA, USA;Department of Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Meibergdreef 9, 1105, Amsterdam, AZ, the Netherlands;Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK;Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health, 915 Greene Street, 29208, Columbia, SC, USA;

关键词: Sustainability;    Food policy;    Carbon footprint;    Plant-based diets;    Consumer behavior;    Front-of-package labels;    Food labeling;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12966-021-01178-9

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundReducing red meat is a strategy to improve public health and mitigate climate change in the United States and other high-income countries. Policies requiring warnings on the front of red meat packages are a promising intervention to shift consumers towards healthier and more sustainable food choices. We aimed to explore participants’ reactions to health and environmental warning messages about red meat.MethodsBetween June and July 2020, we recruited a national convenience sample of US red meat consumers (n = 1,235; mean age 44 years) for an online survey. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four label conditions: no-label control, health warning, environment warning, and combined health and environment warning (both warnings shown side-by-side). Participants viewed three types of burritos (red meat [steak], chicken, and vegetarian) and selected their preferred item (primary outcome), the item they perceived to be most damaging to health, and the item they perceived to be most damaging to the environment (secondary outcomes). Participants then viewed their assigned warning on a series of other red meat products (no-label control participants were randomly re-assigned to one of the warning conditions) and rated the warnings on perceived message effectiveness, believability, negative emotions, perceived risk, attention, and learning something new. Finally, participants reported their intentions to reduce red meat consumption.ResultsThere were no significant differences in selection of the steak burrito between label conditions or in selection of the item most damaging to the environment. Those exposed to the health warning were more likely to select the steak burrito as most damaging to health compared to those exposed to other label conditions (health 73 %, combined 64 %, environment 60 %, no-label control 63 %, p < 0.05). The combined and health warnings elicited higher perceived message effectiveness ratings than the environment warning (combined mean 2.91, health 2.84, environment 2.61, p < 0.05).ConclusionsWarnings did not have a significant effect on item preference in the choice experiment. However, combined and health warnings performed better than the environment warning across a variety of warning label reaction measures. More research will be needed to understand whether warnings elicit behavioral change in real-world environments.Trial registrationAnalyses and hypotheses were preregistered on https://aspredicted.org/ph7mb.pdf on 23 June 2020.

【 授权许可】

CC BY