Do nutritional warnings encourage healthier choices on food ordering websites? An exploratory experimental study in Uruguay

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate if the inclusion of nutritional warnings in food ordering websites can discourage consumers from purchasing foods with excessive content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Design: Participants were randomly assigned to one of the two experimental conditions: control (n=225), or nutritional warnings (n=222). Nutritional warnings corresponded to separate black octagonal signs containing the word “Excess” followed by the corresponding nutrient: total fat, saturated fat, sugars and sodium. Participants were asked to purchase a lunch for themselves using a simulated food ordering website. Setting: Online study in Uruguay. Participants: Convenience sample of 447 Uruguayan participants, recruited using social media. Results: In the control condition, 76% of the participants selected a dish or a beverage with excessive content of at least one nutrient in the simulated food ordering website. When nutritional warnings were included, this percentage significantly decreased to 62% (p=0.002). In addition, nutritional warnings caused a significant reduction in the percentage of participants who selected dishes with excessive content of total fat: 50% vs. 62% (p=0.012). Conclusions: Results from the present work provide preliminary evidence that the inclusion of nutritional warnings in food ordering websites could discourage consumers from selecting dishes and beverages with excessive content of nutrients associated with NCDs.

Are Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labels Influencing Food Choices and Purchases, Diet Quality, and Modeled Health Outcomes? A Narrative Review of Four Systems

“…The selection process retrieved a total of 64 original publications, that reported 65 experimental studies, addressing the selected FOPNL and selected outcomes, as displayed on Table 2 [ 12 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 ,…”

“…When considering studies published from mid-2018, 47 new set of data were identified and analyzed [ 12 , 20 , 23 , 24 , 27 , 29 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 44 , 46 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 56 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 78 , 79 , 81 ]. Among those, 23 compared two of the four FOPNL of interest or more.…”

Using a Naturalistic Store Laboratory for Clinical Trials of Point-of-Sale Nutrition Policies and Interventions: A Feasibility and Validation Study

“…Another viable option is to conduct experiments in virtual 3D stores [38][39][40], which may facilitate faster and more affordable recruitment, although the simulated shopping environment is not as realistic as a physical store. Finally, some studies have used experimental online stores intended to replicate online grocery shopping or food ordering websites [41,42]. Online stores may also allow for faster recruitment and can be very realistic for people who typically buy groceries online; rates of online shopping have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic [43].…”

Front-of-pack nutrition labels: perceptions and preferences of Brazilian adult consumers

“…Overall, several studies have been conducted in various countries and regions. These studies examine the effectiveness of FOP labeling and/or consumers' perception about FOP labels, as carried out in Australia and New Zealand (Pettigrew et al, 2017), Canada (Acton et al, 2018), Chile (Dourado et al, 2021), India (Bera et al, 2021), Mexico (Basto-Abreu et al, 2020), Portugal (Feteira-Santos et al, 2021, Uruguay (Gugliucci et al, 2021), the USA (Sonnenberg et al, 2013) and Brazil (Khandpur et al, 2018), where this study was conducted.…”

“…, 2021), India (Bera et al ., 2021), Mexico (Basto-Abreu et al , 2020), Portugal (Feteira-Santos et al. , 2021), Uruguay (Gugliucci et al. , 2021), the USA (Sonnenberg et al.…”