Exploring the effectiveness of policy options for added sugar labelling in Australian adults

We will examine the relative effectiveness of different added sugar labelling options for three food product groups (breakfast cereals, yoghurts and non-alcoholic packaged beverages) using one sequential randomised controlled trial. Trial: A third-party recruitment company will be used to recruit participants for the online study. The recruitment company have security measures in place to securely store participants’ identifiable data. No identifiable information will be received by the researchers from the recruitment company. Research data (i.e. answers to the survey) will not be available to or stored by the recruitment company. Eligible participants will be randomised to complete one of seven online survey conditions that will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Participants will be screened in order to classify them as high or low sugar purchasers. Participants will be asked to select all relevant products they purchase at least once a month for themselves or their household from a range of generic product subcategories in each of the product categories of interest (yoghurt and custards, breakfast cereal and non-alcoholic packaged drinks). For example, in the yoghurt categories this will include: plain Greek or natural yoghurt, flavoured Greek or natural yoghurt, custard etc. These generic subcategories will be classified as “high” and “low” sugar products. If the participants selects one or more high sugar products in each category they will be considered a high sugar purchaser. Each survey condition will include three hypothetical purchasing tasks: one each for breakfast cereals, yoghurts and non-alcoholic packaged beverages. The products in each hypothetical purchasing scenario are commercially available and products that participants would recognise. Each task will consist of choosing one products from ten alternatives with varying sugar content, labelled with one of seven labelling options (depending on the survey condition) currently used in Australia or internationally or under consideration by the Australian Government for example (but not limited to): (i) Status quo – current Nutrition Information Panel (NIP) (Back of Pack labelling system without added sugar content) (control condition); (ii) added sugars quantified in the NIP (the remaining five conditions will also include a back-of-pack NIP with added sugar content); (iii) Pictorial approaches to convey the amount or types of sugars in a serving of food (teaspoons of sugar); (iv) Chilean-style advisory labels for foods high in added sugars; (v) Health Star Rating (using current algorithm without added sugar)- simple display without panel; (vi) Health Star Rating (using proposed algorithm with added sugar)- simple display without panel; and (vii) Change to statement of ingredients to asterisk ingredients with added sugar. Advisory labels will be displayed on high sugar products only. All other labels will be displayed on every product in the choice set, as relevant. Each participant will be exposed to one treatment condition (sugar labelling intervention or control) and complete the purchasing task in all three food categories. Participants will not receive any feedback after completing the survey.