The effects of presenting health and environmental impacts of food on consumption intentions

Current patterns of food consumption are detrimental to our health and the environment. Consumers need to make informed changes to their diets but due to a lack of understanding of the health and environment benefits/risks of foods, this is difficult to do. The current study examined the effectiveness of a novel food label, the Health Nutrition Index (HENI; minutes of healthy life gained/lost per serving), that communicates the health benefits/risks of foods, and identifies how consumers negotiate and prioritise health and environmental concerns of foods. Participants (N = 901, females = 546, age: M = 46.62 (16.61) years, BMI: M = 27.39 (6.75)) viewed 24 foods presented with either no information (control), standard nutritional facts (nutrition), HENI (health), carbon footprint scores (kg CO2eq per serving; environment), or both HENI and carbon footprint scores (combined). Participants rated the perceived healthiness, environmentally friendliness and their intentions to increase/decrease consumption of each food. Perceptions of healthiness and environmentally friendliness were significantly correlated with HENI and carbon footprint scores respectively. Although, overall intentions to change consumption did not significantly differ across conditions, participants presented with HENI (health and combined conditions) scores reported intentions that significantly increased minutes of healthy life gained. Only participants in the environment condition intended to reduce consumption of foods that were beneficial to health but high risk for the environment. For foods that were harmful to health, but low risk for the environment, no significant difference in intentions was found. Overall, results suggest HENI is effective at portraying the health benefits of foods and individuals prioritise the health benefits of foods over the environmental impact they may have.