FOOD-FRAMES

1) Wider research context: Efforts to promote sustainable and healthy diets have mostly focused on the individual, which has been ineffective. The current food information environment (FIE) is dominated by misinformation and harmful marketing of unsustainable and unhealthy foods and prevents consumers from making informed choices. System-level approaches are thus urgently needed; the multinational and interdisciplinary project FOOD-FRAMES addresses this gap by co-creating systemic, multi-level recommendations for policies and legal frameworks to empower consumers to make healthier, more sustainable food choices. 2) Objectives: We will contribute by (1) uncovering psychological mechanisms that explain how the FIE influences food choices, focusing on food-related misinformation and marketing, and (2) identifying and testing scalable interventions to address food-related misinformation to provide actionable policy recommendations. 3) Approach: Within the solution- and impact-driven food systems approach of FOOD-FRAMES, we will (1) assess the spread of food-related misinformation and harmful marketing across Europe and the underlying psychological mechanisms this exposure triggers using, amongst others, (a) a cross-country (AT, BE, DE, DK, NL) three-wave panel survey linked with online misinformation data obtained via webscraping and semi- automated content analysis (in close collaboration with the Danish partner), and (b) a cross-country experience sampling study, combining real-time assessment of food marketing exposure on social media with momentary assessments of core psychological constructs, intentions and food intake. Building up on these findings, we will (2) identify relevant scalable interventions to counteract food-related misinformation via a systematic literature review, refine them with experts in a Delphi study, and test their potential effectiveness in a cross-country (AT, DE, IT, NO) online experiment to provide recommendations for national and EU-level policy. 4) Innovation: This research will provide insights into underlying psychological mechanisms of misinformation and marketing exposure in daily life at different timescales ranging from moments to weeks, and across cultures, genders, and educational backgrounds. It will also deliver actionable solutions for policymakers at the national and EU level to create healthier and more FIEs to protect consumers. 5) Primary researchers involved: The multinational, interdisciplinary consortium is led by Wageningen University (the Netherlands); partners are from the University of Vienna (AT), the University of Ghent and Sciensano (BE), the University of Southern Denmark (DK), the University of Bayreuth and LMU Munich (DE), University College Cork (IE), the University of Pisa (IT), and the Norway Institute of Public Health (NO). Partners span several disciplines from nutritional science and public health to psychology, economics and law