Conclusions
In the present study, we developed a new traffic-light front-of-pack environmental label based on a score that differentiated food categories. This label was highly noticed, well understood and provided new information that helped the participants to identify the food products of lower environmental impact. Using VR technology that mimicked how an environmental labelling scheme would be likely implemented in real-world supermarkets, we observed a reduction of the environmental impact of food choices in the presence of the environmental label. We thus highlighted that environmental labelling could be a useful tool to shape sustainable dietary patterns at a population level by triggering substitutions across food categories, notably from meat-based to plant-based food products. We also confirmed that VR technology was an effective tool for monitoring individual decision-making behaviours at the point-of-choice in the context of a randomised controlled trial which may be of great interest for future research in behavioural nutrition. Altogether, the results of this study support the idea that environmental labelling could contribute to a global raise in public awareness regarding the environmental impacts of food products across food categories.