The Effect of a Front-of-Pack Nutrition Labeling System to Promote Healthier Purchase Decisions

Food labeling, especially front-of-package labeling systems, can influence healthier purchase decisions (Hersey et al., 2013). Our intervention aims to study if food purchasing decisions can be improved by using a simple, informative, front-of-package labeling intervention. In contrast to previous studies, our design utilizes controlled randomization that can disentangle whether the label itself or the information on the label is causing behavior change in a real-world setting. Our paradigm utilizes the 5-Color Nutrition Label, which exploits the nutritional information of products to inform consumers about each products' nutritional contents in an easy-to-understand manner that promotes product comparison (Ducrot et al., 2016) following IOM recommendations (Nathan, Yaktine, Lichtenstein, & Wartella, 2012). We utilize all sales data and intervene in the 21 cafeterias and shops as well as vending machines run by the Servicios de Alimentación (Food Services) at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogotá.