Most plant-based meat alternative buyers also buy meat: an analysis of household demographics, habit formation, and buying behavior among meat alternative buyers.

The promise of novel plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) to lessen the health and environmental impacts of meat consumption ultimately depend on market acceptance and the extent to which they displace meat in consumers' diets. We use household scanner data to provide an in-depth analysis of consumers' PBMA buying behaviors. PBMAs buyers tend to be young, single, female, college educated, employed, higher income, and non-white. About 20% of consumers purchased a PBMA at least once, and 12% purchased a PBMA on multiple occasions. About 2.79% of households only purchased PBMAs. About 86% of PBMA buyers also bought ground meat; however, PBMA buyers spent about 13% less on ground meat. Interestingly, after a household's first PBMA purchase, ground meat consumption did not fall. The number of households buying a PBMA for the first time fell over the two year period studied, despite the increase in market share in the ground meat market.

Can the updated nutrition facts label decrease sugar-sweetened beverage consumption?

Sugar-sweetened beverages are the primary source of added sugar consumption in the U.S, and the Food and Drug Administration recently updated the Nutrition Facts Label to communicate the amount of added sugars in manufactured food. The changes to the Nutrition Facts Label (NFL) is concurrent with some cities implementing policies that place an excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. While sugar-sweetened beverages taxes may be effective at changing quantity demanded, the updated NFL has the potential to shift the demand curve by decreasing friction and mental gaps associated with the communication of nutrition information. We conducted a randomized control trial using eye tracking technology to determine if the updated NFL garnered more visual attention or affected beverage choice. Participants were also exposed to an information intervention to determine if the updated NFL affected choice after receiving information about added sugars. We found that consumers were more visually attentive to nutrition information displayed by the updated NFL; however, viewing the updated label did not affect choice of beverages nor did it improve the effectiveness of the dietary information on subsequent choices.

A review of nutrition labeling and food choice in the United States.

A proliferation of processed food and labeling claims motivated the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990, which mandated the Nutrition Facts Label. Providing nutrition information is often put forth as a way to change food choice; however, despite efforts to provide dietary information using nutrition labeling, more than a third of the US has obesity and portions of the population continue to under consume vital nutrients. There has been progress beyond the Nutrition Facts Label in recent years with front-of-package labeling and menu labeling, which is crucial given changes in consumption trends for food-away-from-home. Additionally, changes were recently made to the Nutrition Facts Label due to lack of awareness, understanding, and ability to effectively improve diet quality. This paper explores the literature to track the evolution of knowledge about attention to nutrition information and how nutrition information affects dietary choices.