Testing Ultra-processed Warning Labels in United States

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Diet, Consumer Behavior, Nutrition Labeling

In brief

This randomized controlled online experiment will test whether adding an ultra-processed food (UPF) warning label to the FDA's proposed Nutrition Information Box (NIB) changes consumer perceptions of UPFs among a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Participants will be randomized to one of four label conditions and will evaluate four UPF yogurt products with different nutritional profiles on the NIB. The primary outcome is purchase intent and the secondary outcomes are perceived healthfulness, perceived usefulness and correct identification of UPF products. This experiment aims to answer the following questions: Do UPF warning labels reduce purchase intentions compared to the NIB alone? Do UPF warning labels reduce perceived healthfulness compared to the NIB alone? Do UPF warning labels help more consumers correctly identify products as ultra-processed compared to the NIB alone? Do different UPF warning label color designs differ in effectiveness at reducing purchase intentions, lowering perceived healthfulness, and improving correct identification of UPFs? Researchers will compare outcomes across the four randomized arms to estimate the independent effect of adding UPF warnings beyond nutrient disclosure in the NIB alone.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT07533877

Run by

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

People needed

7000

Starts

2026-04-13

Expected to finish

2026-05-04

Last updated by the study team

2026-06-12

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• 18 years of age or older
• Member of the Verasight Panel
• Residing in the United States

You may not qualify if…

• <18 years of age
• Not residing in the United States
• Completed the survey in less than one-third of the median completion duration of all participants
• Respondents with high refusal rates (skipped or refused more than 50% of questions)
• Respondents who 'straight-line' all question grids with 6 or more items, where responses are not internally consistent

Where it is running

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.