The effect of information and pricing interventions for meat on food purchases in a virtual supermarket

Potential demand site food policies aiming at a transition from animal to more plant-based food consumption patterns need to be investigated as such a transition will have consequences for, amongst others, human health, food safety, the environment. Fiscal policies such as meat taxation may be an effective policy option to reduce meat purchases. Current policies for meat reduction objectives are few and mainly of the information type. Therefore, the aim of the present randomized controlled trial is to measure and compare the effect of potential demand side policy options (taxation, information) for meat reduction on consumer purchasing in a virtual supermarket. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of the following conditions: a meat tax condition, an information condition, a combination of a meat tax and information condition, or a control condition.

Our hypothesis is that less meat will be purchased in the meat tax condition, the information condition and in the combined condition (tax and information condition) compared to the control condition. We expect the largest reduction in meat purchases in the combined condition, followed by the meat tax condition and the information condition.

One time point. Participants will visit the virtual supermarket once and complete a questionnaire afterwards.

In the virtual supermarket, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the following conditions:
(i) Meat tax condition. In this condition, the taxation of meat results in an 30% price increase at the consumer/food purchase level. A price increase of 30% for meat through a tax could lead to a net societal benefit for the Netherlands (Broeks, M.J., Biesbroek, S., Over, E.A.B. et al. A social cost-benefit analysis of meat taxation and a fruit and vegetables subsidy for a healthy and sustainable food consumption in the Netherlands. BMC Public Health 20, 643 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08590-z). In this condition participants will be informed about the meat tax to reflect a realistic situation.
(ii) Information condition. In this condition, participants will receive an informative message about the impact of meat consumption on the planet before entering the Virtual Supermarket. Participants are informed to illustrate a informative policy.
(iii) Meat tax and information condition. In this condition, the taxation of meat results in an 30% price increase at the consumer/food purchase level and participants will receive an informative message about the impact of meat consumption on the planet before entering the Virtual Supermarket. In this condition, participants will be informed about the meat tax to reflect a realistic situation.
(iv) Control condition. In this condition, regular prices will be used. The control condition will also be used for the purpose of another randomized controlled trial evaluating the effect of a sugar-sweetened beverage tax on consumer purchases (NL8616).