Using Positive Nudge to Promote Healthy Eating at Worksite: A Food Labeling Intervention.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect and transferability of a workplace food labeling intervention. METHODS: Employees' purchase of food items in cafeterias of an international company was monitored in six intervention sites (one in France and five in the United States [US]) where green-labels were displayed in healthy food items. One cafeteria in France represented the control site. Descriptive statistics were performed inter- and intra-site. RESULTS: One year after the intervention, purchase of labeled items was higher in the French intervention site compared with the control (P < 0.001). This consumption was increasing 2 years after the intervention (P < 0.001). The percentage (+8.0% from T0 to T1) of sales of labeled items from the US sites confirmed the transferability of this intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Workplace food labeling using positive nudge can contribute to healthy eating habits among employees. This can be replicated in other worksite cafeterias.

Impact of a front-of-pack nutritional traffic-light label on the nutritional quality and the hedonic value of mid-afternoon snacks chosen by mother-child dyads.

The aim of this study was to assess the impact of a nutritional traffic-light label, the Nutri-Score, on snack choices in mother-child dyads and to assess a potential hedonic cost associated with a change in favour of healthier choices. French mothers and children (n = 95; children's age: 7-11 years) who participated were asked to choose, for themselves and for the other dyad member, a snack composed of one beverage and two food items selected among several products with different nutritional quality. In the first step, the products were presented without any information. In the second step, the products were labelled with the Nutri-Score. Mothers and children were asked to rate their liking for all proposed products before being informed of their nutritional quality. The nutritional quality, the hedonic score, and the estimated budget of the selected snacks were compared before and after labelling. As hypothesized, the Nutri-Score label led to a significant increase in the nutritional quality of the chosen snacks. The budget for the chosen snacks was unchanged or decreased after the nutritional labelling was applied. Children and mothers had significantly lower liking for the snacks after nutritional labelling than before nutritional labelling, suggesting a hedonic cost associated with a change in favour of healthier snack choices. This raises the question of the sustainability of the behavioural change induced by the Nutri-Score label.