Measurement of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Meals of a University Food Operator

Measurement of Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Meals of a University Food Operator

Université Laval wishes to raise awareness among students and employees in the university community so that they become aware of the impacts of their consumption choices by equipping them to adopt consumption behaviours that are favourable to the environment and their health. To do this, it is necessary to assess consumers' perception of the information available when choosing a meal to determine, among other things, whether knowledge of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions influences their selections. In addition to this evaluation criterion, consumer perception of the nutritional quality of food will also be assessed. The nutritional composition of the meals of the characterized week will make it possible to calculate, using a nutritional profiling tool, the nutritional quality score of each meal of the day.

This study consists of an individual meeting with each participant. This meeting will last approximately 1 hour during which each subject will choose a meal and complete various questionnaires. Subjects (male or female) will be randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions ("GHG", "nutrition", "GHG+nutrition" and "no logo"). Since subjects could change their eating behaviours if they knew the true purpose of the study, they will be deliberately misled when they enter the study. Participants will be recruited to participate in a market research study in which they will be invited to taste and evaluate a new meal for the cafeteria. At the end of the session, each participant will be informed of the actual objective of the study.

In this context, the general objectives of this second phase of the project are therefore:

1. Evaluate consumer perceptions of the available information on the GHG score (in equivalent C02), the nutritional quality score and the eco-efficiency score (combination of GHG + nutrition), and;
2. Determine if the presence of information (logo on the different scores) influences food choice and consumption among Université Laval students and staff.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Study or work at Université Laval

Exclusion Criteria:

• People taking drugs that may affect appetite (e.g., antidepressants, antipsychotics or corticosteroids);
• People with food allergies or intolerances, and pregnant and lactating women;
• People with food aversions to more than 20% of the main meal ingredients from the menu.