Food choices are shaped by many factors, including food availability, price, marketing, nutrition information, personal preferences, knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and lived experience. Understanding how consumers interpret nutrition information and make food choices is essential for developing effective nutrition policies, public health tools, and communication strategies.

The L’Abbé Lab studies consumer knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, dietary patterns, and responses to nutrition information using surveys, online experiments, mock food packages, digital tools, and dietary assessment methods.

Our Research Goals

The goal of consumer research at the L’Abbé Lab is to understand how Canadians interpret nutrition information, respond to nutrition policies and tools, and make food choices in real-world and simulated settings.

Recent and ongoing work focuses on sodium knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours; nutrition labels, claims, and digital tools such as FoodFlip©; and dietary assessment tools based on Canada’s Food Guide.

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Sodium Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours

The L’Abbé Lab has studied Canadians’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours related to sodium reduction for more than a decade. Earlier work examined consumer understanding of sodium and sodium-reduced foods, including mock-package experiments testing consumer responses to lower-sodium cheese products.

More recent research has examined changes in dietary sodium knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among Canadian adults between 2011 and 2024. This work helps identify whether consumer awareness and behaviours have changed over time and where additional public health education, food supply reformulation, or policy support may still be needed.

Selected Publications and Reports

• Changes in Canadians’ sodium knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours
  Al Ghali R, Prashad M, Lou W, L’Abbé M, Arcand J. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2026;123(4):101213.
• Web-based sodium assessment tools and consumer behaviour
  Jefferson K, Semnani-Azad Z, Wong C, L’Abbé MR, Arcand J. Nutrients. 2019;11(9).
• Consumer knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours toward sodium-reduced foods
  Phase 1 Final Report: Consumer Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours towards Sodium and Sodium-Reduced Foods.
• Consumer responses to sodium-reduced cheese
  Phase 2 Final Report: Consumer Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours towards Sodium-Reduced Cheese.

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Nutrition Labels, Claims, and FoodFlip©

The L’Abbé Lab has conducted consumer experiments examining how different nutrition labelling formats influence consumer understanding, product perceptions, and purchase intentions. This includes research on front-of-package labels, Nutrition Facts tables, nutrient content claims, disease risk reduction claims, and interpretive nutrition rating systems delivered through digital tools.

FoodFlip©, a smartphone app developed by the L’Abbé Lab, has been used in randomized controlled trials to evaluate consumer perceptions of different interpretive nutrition rating systems, including traffic light labels, “high in” warning labels, health star ratings, and control labels using the Nutrition Facts table.

Selected Publications

• FoodFlip© and consumer perceptions of nutrition information
  Ahmed M, Oh A, Vanderlee L, Franco-Arellano B, Schermel A, Lou W, L’Abbé MR. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2020;17(1):22.
• Front-of-package labels, nutrition claims, and purchase intentions
  Franco-Arellano B, Vanderlee L, Ahmed M, Oh A, L’Abbé M. Appetite. 2020;149:104629.
• Consumer recall and understanding of nutrition-related messages
  Franco-Arellano B, Vanderlee L, Ahmed M, Oh A, L’Abbé MR. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(21):8213.
• Consumer responses to “high in,” health star, and traffic light labels
  Vanderlee L, Franco-Arellano B, Ahmed M, Oh A, Lou W, L’Abbé MR. Public Health Nutrition. 2020.

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Dietary Assessment and Canada’s Food Guide

The L’Abbé Lab also contributes to the development and evaluation of tools that assess dietary patterns and alignment with national dietary guidance. Recent work has focused on the development and application of a Food Choices Assessment Score based on the 2019 Canada’s Food Guide and Canada’s Dietary Guidelines.

These tools help researchers and policymakers assess the healthfulness of dietary choices, examine associations with cardiometabolic health, and better understand how dietary patterns relate to chronic disease risk.

Selected Publications

• Food Choices Assessment Score based on Canada’s Food Guide
  Hamamji S, Ahmed M, Zaltz D, L’Abbé MR. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2025.
• Food choices, cardiometabolic health, and socioeconomic status
  Hamamji S, Zaltz D, L’Abbé MR. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. 2025.

Additional publications from the L’Abbé Lab can be found on our Publications page by filtering topics for “Consumer Research.”