ABSTRACT
The growth of away-from-home food consumption worldwide raises concern about the associated negative externalities, with food-related chronic diseases and food waste on the forefront. Changing consumer behaviors at the point of purchase could help reducing the extent of these externalities by encouraging healthier and more sustainable food choices. So far, however, the majority of actions aimed at consumers have relied on the provision of information or on labeling, with low effectiveness. Such strategies rely on the assumption that food choice behaviors result principally from rational decision-making. Behavioral Economics models provide a different approach, integrating bounded rationality in the study of consumers’ decisions for food. This chapter discusses these approaches on the basis of recent advances in the public health nutrition field that build on these models to design strategies aiming to encourage healthier eating in foodservice settings. We present and discuss a typology of nudges aimed at food decisions, based on a systematic literature review. We discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of such approaches in foodservice, as well 208as perspectives to extend them to other types of sustainability-related issues and current research gaps. One of the main challenges is to gain a better understanding of the conditions for the effectiveness of nudges. It is, therefore, crucial to investigate the contextual determinants of food decision-making, particularly at the individual level, in order to develop interventions that are efficient and well targeted.
