Start Date: August 2015

ID #: CAS031

Organization: University of Georgia

Project Lead: Chen Zhen, PhD

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Shelf nutrition labels provide summary information on the overall nutritional quality of a food product. They provide cues to shoppers and may be effective in promoting healthy food choices at the point of purchase. The purpose of this project is to examine the effects of NuVal, a shelf nutrition labeling and nutrient profiling system, on food purchases and calories. The study will use retrospective purchasing data from 3,765 households from three retailers that have adopted NuVal, an in-store shopper intercept study, and a retail audit study to estimate the impact of NuVal on calories and nutritional quality of food purchases. Scanner data from the IRI Academic Data Set will be used to track household-level purchases and store-level prices and sales in two IRI BehaviorScan cities—Eau Claire, Wis., and Pittsfield, Mass.,—before and after adoption of NuVal. Investigators will estimate the effects of NuVal labels on four key consumer choice variables: weighted average NuVal score, calories purchased, average NuVal score per dollar spent, and calories per dollar spent; and will focus on four food categories: canned soup, frozen meals, cold cereal, and yogurt. The study will also test for differential impacts between lower- and higher-income families, between families with and without children, and between households with and without college education.

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