FoodFLIP: Testing the Effectiveness of a Food Information App to Promote the Selection of Healthier Foods

The rising rate of obesity and diet-related chronic diseases illustrate that Canadians' eating habits need to change. Equipping Canadians with information and tools to enable healthy food choices that decrease risk for disease is imperative. While the Nutrition Facts table (NFt) is the most standardized and complete form of nutrition labelling, studies have shown that consumers are confused about serving size, nutrient quantities, and the interpretation of the % Daily Value. Thus, expert groups have proposed the introduction of interpretive front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition rating systems (e.g. traffic light labelling or star ratings) that also help consumers understand the significance of the levels of nutrients in relation to the "healthiness" of a food. One of the main barriers to the introduction of such a system is the absence of high quality studies that objectively measure the impact of nutrition information on actual food purchases. This is a consequence of both the practical challenges associated with designing and conducting such studies in 'real-world' settings, and the lack of food industry support to quantitatively examine or publish the potential for enhanced nutrition labels to modify consumer food choices. With the growing burden of diet-related disease, there is an urgent need for robust evidence to evaluate the potential for additional interpretive nutrition labelling systems to modify and improve food purchasing patterns. Given the relative ubiquity of mobile digital technologies, our Canadian Smartphone application (FoodFLIP) provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to examine and improve consumers' diets. This study will investigate whether a traffic light, a health star rating or a high-in warning label FOP system can help consumers identify and purchase healthier foods. Objective 1: To evaluate the effects of three FOP systems in helping consumers characterize healthfulness and nutritional content of food items. Objective 2: To determine which of the three FOP systems support healthier food choices and are preferred by Canadian consumers.