Plant-based labels aim to promote plant-based choices by highlighting which products are plant-based. However, these labels are often applied selectively, leaving many more plant-based products unlabelled. We argue that this may unintentionally communicate that plant-based options are more 'niche' rather than the 'norm', and thereby hinder normalisation of plant-based consumption. Across two incentive-compatible experiments with representative Dutch samples in a simulated online supermarket, we examined how labelling interventions influence perceived availability of plant-based options, descriptive and injunctive social norms for choosing plant-based, and plant-based choices. In Study 1 (N = 1474), we manipulated the number of plant-based products labelled as plant-based. We found that labelling the majority (≥60%) of plant-based products increased perceived availability of plant-based products. Study 2 (N = 981) strengthened the label manipulation and compared two approaches: a positively framed "plant-based" label on all plant-based products versus a negatively framed 'contains animal-based ingredients' label on all non-plant-based products, hereby positioning those as 'exceptions'. The plant-based labels boosted perceived availability of plant-based foods, perceived descriptive norms and intention to choose plant-based products, while the 'contains animal-based ingredients' labels significantly increased plant-based choices. Together, these findings suggest that plant-based labels can shape perceptions beyond providing information on which products are plant-based by altering perceptions of availability and social norms. Future labelling strategies may increase their impact by normalising sustainable choices through effective labelling that highlights these options as the most visible and prevalent choice.

Purpose This research investigates how consumers’ prior knowledge and attention to labeling information influence their choices and willingness to pay (WTP) for Medjool dates. While previous studies have explored the link between attention and choice, this study advances the literature by combining stored (memory-based) knowledge with external (labeling) information, offering new insights into food choice behavior. Design/methodology/approach Choice experiments are combined with eye-tracking observations in a laboratory study to elicit consumer attention and choice-making processes. A free-elicitation technique is used to assess participants’ stored knowledge. Findings The results show how package labeling influences visual attention during decision-making and how this interacts with consumers’ stored knowledge to shape food choices. Findings showed that 16% of stored knowledge related to intrinsic quality cues like taste, compared with 3% for extrinsic cues like brand names. Notably, 33% of memory associations were experience attributes – qualities consumers can only evaluate after purchase – while 30% were credence attributes, which must be communicated through labeling for pre-purchase assessment. Originality/value Though many consumer choice studies exist, few examine how memory and point-of-purchase information together affect decision-making. Focusing on packaged fruit, this study clarifies the relationship between memory, labeling and food choice, and offers new insights on Medjool dates – an economically important yet understudied crop.

The rapid digital transformation of the food-away-from-home (FAFH) sector has redefined how consumers access and select meals. Digital delivery platforms such as Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Meituan have become influential market intermediaries, shaping the nutritional landscape of food environments and raising concerns about their healthfulness. This study reviews empirical evidence on policy-based and industry-led interventions aimed at improving dietary outcomes in digital FAFH environments. Following PRISMA guidelines and using machine-learning–assisted screening (ASReview), 37 peer-reviewed studies were identified across four domains: nutritional labeling, fiscal measures, food-assistance programs, and digital nudges or decision-support tools. Findings indicate that although traditional food-policy instruments designed for physical food environments can be adapted to digital contexts, their effects remain modest and context specific. Industry-led interventions, such as menu reordering, healthier defaults, and real-time basket feedback, show encouraging effects on meal quality and calorie reduction when integrated into online platform design. Opportunities also exist to embed digital policies and personalized decision aids within platform interfaces, providing scalable mechanisms for nutrition governance. Yet regulatory ambiguity, limited transparency, and profit-oriented design incentives constrain their reach. Cross-country disparities in market structure, investment, and institutional capacity further restrict policy diffusion, with most evidence drawn from high-income economies. The review calls for governance frameworks that treat digital food-delivery platforms not as passive outlets but as active infrastructures for public-health policy.

Food-related sustainability and health issues have led to calls for improving consumer food choices. As food purchase decisions predominantly occur in supermarkets and increasingly in online supermarkets, online interventions to stimulate healthy and sustainable grocery choices have gained importance. Using an incentivized experiment, this study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of precommitment to a health goal and personalized product recommendations upon entering the online store. We analyzed participants' online grocery shopping behavior and experience within a realistic online shopping environment (N = 1,088). Results show that healthy grocery choices are encouraged through product recommendations in the form of a landing page with healthy items as well as a prefilled basket with healthy items. The greatest impact was observed from landing page interventions with healthy products. Participants were also in favor of landing page interventions during their regular grocery shopping. Yet, interventions lower individuals' perceived self-efficacy in making healthy choices. Understanding how interventions impact consumers' behavior, experience, and self-efficacy gives retailers directions on how to stimulate healthy food choices, guiding the sustainability transition.

Food waste, especially in households, is a pressing issue. Sharing excess food with others can be a strategy to tackle this issue. To encourage sharing, this research introduces an intervention involving a guideline on giving food to others and stickers reminding individuals to do so. Through a field study (N = 199), we examine the effectiveness of this intervention on food sharing and other household behaviors towards near-expired food from the giver’s perspective. The results show that the intervention consistently increased the percentage of food shared in the two weeks after the food had entered the household. In addition, it also increased the number of individuals engaged in sharing. Besides, the intervention reduces the percentage of food put in storage, which diminishes decision-making delays and the risk of the food being forgotten and wasted eventually. Our findings offer a practical intervention to facilitate food sharing.

Food swap strategies offer consumers healthier alternatives, yet effectiveness in past studies varies and reasons for observed low acceptance rates remain unclear. This study examines whether and how (personalized) justifications for healthy food swaps affect consumer acceptance (N = 871). We assume that consumers want relevant justifications for why a food swap is offered and that aligning food swaps with individual preferences enhances the perceived relevance. Given uncertainties on consumers' willingness to share personal data for tailored recommendations in online grocery shopping, this study also explores consumers' willingness to disclose such information to retailers (N = 500). Our findings show that providing a food swap justification, i.e. explaining the rationale behind healthy food recommendations, boosts the acceptance and perceived relevance of the food swap while reducing intrusiveness perceptions. Personalized justifications motivate consumers to switch to healthier options, provided that retailers balance personal relevance and perceived intrusiveness when requesting personal information to tailor advice. Trial registration This study was pre-registered at OSF on 22-06-2023 (https://osf.io/5vg64).

Food recommender systems have been developed for the online environment to support shoppers in making informed decisions. These systems analyze the extensive data collected to infer consumer preferences and needs, providing relevant product recommendations accordingly. Despite the potential of recommender systems as a strategic marketing tool in the online grocery shopping environment, there has been limited effort to systematically analyze approaches of prior studies on recommender systems for online grocery shoppers along the five stages of recommendation delivery: (1) identify recommendation goal, (2) acquire consumer data, (3) compute, (4) evaluate, and (5) present the recommendation. Therefore, this paper examines the advancements in each stage of delivering grocery recommendations to consumers from 2018 to March 2023. We performed a search strategy resulting in 50 papers dedicated to recommender systems for online grocery shoppers, which contrasts with previous research that typically examined recipe and meal recommendations that were merely meant to inspire users on what to cook. Findings reveal a prevalence of preference-based systems with limited integration of explicit consumer data, and often lacking consent for implicit data usage. While advanced deep neural network models are getting more attention in the literature, evaluation methods tend to be system-oriented, overlooking essential user feedback and the efficacy of general metrics. This systematic literature review underscores the necessity for consumer engagement in system and interface design, aiming for grocery recommendation systems that improve customer experience, by ensuring inclusivity and prioritizing user-centered design.

One novel strategy to shift food choices in digital shopping environments is to automatically recommend healthier alternatives when an unhealthy choice is made. However, this raises the question which alternative products to recommend. This study assesses 1) whether healthier food swap recommendations are effective, even though the unhealthy choice was made in the presence of visible FOP nutrition labels, and 2) how the similarity of the alternatives influences the acceptance of food swap recommendations. Based on a pre-test, similarity of the recommendation was operationalized in terms of animal-based versus plant-based options. A randomized controlled trial (healthy food swap recommendation conditions: none, similar animal-based, dissimilar plant-based, or mixed animal-and plant-based) with 428 Dutch participants was conducted in a simulated online supermarket. Additional healthier food swap recommendations improved the nutritional quality of the final basket compared to only providing Nutri-Score nutrition labels (-1.7 mean FSA score, p < .001, medium Cohen's d =-0.48). Compared to the dissimilar condition, acceptance of an alternative was more likely in the mixed (odds-ratio = 2.78, p = .015) and in the similar condition (odds-ratio = 2.24, p = .048), but the nutritional quality of the final basket did not differ between treatment conditions. Individuals in treatment conditions who did not receive any recommendation (i.e. only made healthy choices) had higher Nutri-Score familiarity and general health interest than individuals who received recommendations. This suggests that for individuals with higher knowledge and motivation FOP nutrition labels were sufficient, whereas for individuals with lower knowledge and motivation additional food swap recommendations can improve dietary choices. Food swap recommendations may act as meaningful reminders by disrupting the automatic choice process and triggering individuals to rethink their (unhealthy) choice.

The naming and labeling of products can affect consumer attitudes and subsequent behavior, particularly in the case of new food products in the market. The present study explores the effects of name framing on consumer attitudes towards cultured meat (CM), which is currently in the early stages of development. With a sample of 1532 Chinese consumers, we integrated several pathways to explain the name-framing effect by examining three different terms (“cultured,” “artificial,” and “cell-based”) for CM. Results indicate that “cultured meat” and “cell-based meat” are more appealing than “artificial meat.” Name framings of CM affect consumers’ perception of benefits more than that of risks. Our comprehensive model identified evoked affect (perceived disgust) and naturalness as two crucial predictors of attitudes. These two predictors also act as substantial mediators of perceived benefits, and they activate the mediation of perceived risks (an insignificant mediator in cognitive processing). In addition, perceived naturalness mediates the name-framing effect mainly through perceived disgust. Our findings have implications for future strategies for communicating about novel foods (like CM) to the public.

Traditional foods are often perceived to be high in fat and energy-dense and therefore individuals that aim to adopt a healthy diet could be discouraged to consume them. To date, consumer research investigating the interlink of healthy and traditional eating attitudes is lacking. We conducted a cross-country study with a total sample of 5928 consumers from 10 countries worldwide and used the Theory of Planned Behavior as a theoretical framework, to examine the mediating effect of attitude towards traditional eating on the behavioral intention to adopt a healthy diet (target behavior). Our results showed a general positive attitude towards adopting a healthy diet. The model showed that Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Control Beliefs related to the Behavioral Intention of adopting a healthy diet are all significantly correlated with the Attitude towards traditional eating (ATT-TE). Moreover, results indicated that the ATT-TE positively and significantly influence the behavioral intention of adopting a healthy diet. However, if we look at the country level, the effects of the ATT-TE are very heterogeneous. This could be due to the different perception between the interlink of traditional food and healthiness among people, which is often culturally dependent. Several practical and policy implications could include i) policies to increase familiarity with and appreciation towards traditional healthy food, ii) opportunities for campaigns to strengthen the regional marketing of traditional and healthy products, and iii) variations in positioning and messaging emphasis, based on consumer perceptions on the healthiness of traditional food.

The effectiveness of nutrition labels in modifying dietary choices remains limited. Information provision alone is a necessary yet insufficient condition for behavior change to occur. Individuals need to (1) turn information into knowledge and (2) turn knowledge into behavior. This article provides a theoretical framework that suggests that complementary interventions may be needed to target barriers that prevent individuals from processing and acting upon FOP nutrition labels. Evidence about which interventions can support nutrition labels for behavioral change is scattered. This article addresses this research gap through a systematic review of multicomponent nutrition label interventions (label+ interventions) and their effects on the actual healthfulness of dietary choices. From the 3519 records identified, 85 label+ interventions were included. The findings provide limited evidence for the effectiveness of supporting nutrition labels with educational material or reference information. The evidence for supporting nutrition labels with interactive digital interventions, such as basket feedback, or financial incentives is promising. Overall, the findings indicate that more intrusive interventions are required to give cause to act on nutrition labels. Implications and future research avenues for the various label+ categories are discussed.Trial registration: PROSPERO systematic review registration number: CRD42020183141.

Although South Africa accounts for half of the alternative meat market for the African continent, there remains a lack of information about consumer demand for plant-based and lab-cultured meat and its market potential domestically. This study reports the results of a nationwide survey of 649 South African consumers who completed a choice experiment in which they selected among conventional beef and three alternative burger patties at varying prices. Results indicate that holding prices constant and conditional on choosing a food product, 21% of the market share was estimated for plant-based meat alternatives and 38% for lab-cultured meat.

We investigated the effect of health and environmental information messages on purchases of meat and plant-based alternatives in a non-hypothetical online supermarket experiment. When controlling for observables, we find the health information nudge to be effective at motivating meat eaters to purchase plant-based meat alternatives. This effect is absent when providing environmental information or its combination with health information. We also find that meat eaters implicitly perceive meat to be healthier but environmentally unsustainable compared to plant-based alternatives. Our findings provide insights as to how to steer consumers towards meat alternative purchases under different information types in an online supermarket.

Background: There has been growing attention towards personalizing dietary advice to the specific lifestyle, phenotypic and genotypic properties of consumers. Consumer acceptance and advice adherence is critical for the success of services offering personalized dietary advice. However, more insight is needed in the current body of knowledge on the determinants of consumer acceptance and use of personalized dietary advice. Scope and approach: This literature review provides an overview of the current knowledge on consumer accep-tance, use and effectiveness of personalized dietary advice based on the four information flow stages in personalized dietary advice: (1) information provision from consumer to formulate a personalized dietary advice, (2) personalized advice generation, (3) advice provision to the consumer, (4) advice acceptance and adherence. Key Findings and Conclusions: Results show that the extent to which each step in the cycle is considered in the reviewed studies varies strongly, with most emphasis on the advice adherence, such as changes in dietary intake. In contrast, it is less clear how consumer data is used to generate a personalized dietary advice. Based on the studies in our review, we identify aspects that play a role in the consumer acceptance of personalized dietary advice and the best design practices for creating a successful personalized advice.

This study aims to identify opportunities and barriers in developing and implementing Food Shopping Support Systems (FSSS) for healthier and more sustainable choices, given the growing consumer demand and persistent societal problems related to food. The study examined the social and technical value of FSSS in an early development stage through one-on-one expert interviews (n = 20) and consumer focus groups (4 groups, n = 19). Experts were employed in the fields of behavioral sciences, digital marketing, decision aids, software development, persuasive technologies, and public health and sustainability. Consumer participants were used to shopping online. Through a card sorting task followed by semi-structured interview questions, responses were elicited. Participants were presented with 17 cards in 5 rounds, each addressing a different topic related to decision support. Results show that support is perceived useful, particularly when suggestions are personalized, transparent, and justified (using labelling or informative text). Opportunities for uptake were presenting suggestions early in the shopping trip in a visible but non-disruptive manner, allowing autonomy to choose the type of guidance (e.g., show sustainable but not healthier suggestions) and to (not) provide personal data, and educating consumers. Negative attitudes were associated with support being disruptive or steering, being of low credibility, and unclarity about what is healthy or sustainable. Consumer participants expressed concerns about too generic suggestions in relation to health and lack of knowledge about labelling. They emphasized that excessive support and required effort, such as repeatedly providing data, can be burdensome. Experts also worried about limited consumer interest and not having the required data to provide support. Results from this study reveal the potential for successful digital interventions to encourage healthier and more sustainable choices and what this means for further development.

Food waste, especially at the retail and consumer level, is a critical societal issue. Consumers' reluctance to purchase and consume near-expired food is a major contributor. Retailers have taken actions to promote near-expired food; however, it is unclear how their actions influence both purchase and consumption of near-expired food. This research examines one retail strategy aiming to reduce food waste-a message about food waste avoidance (without discounts). Specifically, four experiments (N = 1196) using various measurements of food waste prevention behaviors and one single-paper meta-analysis reveal that a message about food waste avoidance increases consumers' willingness to buy near-expired food through increased moral satisfaction. After purchasing near-expired food, consumers engage in more waste prevention behaviors for it than for other food regardless of whether consumers encounter the food-waste-avoidance message. In addition, we find indications that increased moral satisfaction deriving from the food-waste-avoidance message motivates consumers to conduct more household waste prevention behaviors for the purchased near-expired food. Together, these findings suggest that a message about food waste avoidance can be a potentially effective strategy to reduce the waste of near-expired food. This research extends our understanding of the purchase and consumption of near-expired food and supports retail messages about food waste avoidance to sell near-expired food.

Multi-list recommender systems have become widespread in entertainment and e-commerce applications. Yet, extensive user evaluation research is missing. Since most content is optimized toward a user’s current preferences, this may be problematic in recommender domains that involve behavioral change, such as food recommender systems for healthier food intake. We investigate the merits of multi-list recommendation in the context of internet-sourced recipes. We compile lists that adhere to varying food goals in a multi-list interface, examining whether multi-list interfaces and personalized explanations support healthier food choices. We examine the user evaluation (i.e., diversity, understandability, choice difficulty and satisfaction) of a multi-list recommender interface, linking choice behavior to evaluation aspects through the user experience framework. We present two studies, based on (1) similar-item retrieval and (2) knowledge-based recommendation. Study 1 ( N = 366) compared single-list (5 recipes) and multi-list recommenders (25 recipes; presented with or without explanations). Study 2 ( N = 164) compared single-list and multi-list food recommenders with similar set sizes and varied whether presented explanations were personalized. Multi-list interfaces were perceived as more diverse and understandable than single-list interfaces, while results for choice difficulty and satisfaction were mixed. Moreover, multi-list interfaces triggered changes in food choices, which tended to be unhealthier, but also more goal based.

We conducted a combined sensory and discrete choice experiment study with a 100% beef burger, a plant-based burger using pea protein, a plant-based burger using animal-like protein, and a blended burger with 70% beef and 30% mushroom involving US consumers. Respondents were either assigned to a blind or an informed tasting condition with information about the ingredients before tasting the burgers. Results reveal that (i) beef burgers are preferred over alternatives, (ii) consumers favor blended burgers over alternatives in the blind condition but demand decreases in the informed condition; (iii) consumers prefer the plant-based burger with animal-like protein over the one with pea protein.