PMENCT06923241
Nutri-score Labelling in a UK Restaurant Setting: a Randomised Control Trial
A study testing menu labelling type in people with PME and Food Choice, run by University of Liverpool at 1 site in United Kingdom.
Trial summary
An experiment exploring the perceived effectiveness of Nutri-score food labels with calorie labelling compared to calorie labelling only on food choice and consumption in a real-world setting Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- PME, Food Choice, Food Labelling
- What is being tested?
- menu labelling type
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 672 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited Kingdom
- Study dates
- 27 Mar 2025to 1 Aug 2025
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Can visit a restaurant in Liverpool city centre
- Regularly eat food prepared out of the home (from restaurants, cafes, fast food etc., at least once a month)
- Over the age of 18 years
- Fluent English speaker
Who cannot join
- Pregnant/breastfeeding
- You have been diagnosed with a current or historic eating disorder
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United Kingdom1 site
University of Liverpool
Liverpool, Merseyside, L69 7ZA
About this study
An experiment exploring the perceived effectiveness of Nutri-score food labels with calorie labelling compared to calorie labelling only on food choice and consumption in a real-world setting
- Conditions
- PME, Food Choice, Food Labelling
- Being tested
- menu labelling type
- Keywords
- Nutri-score, PME, Food choice
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
menu labelling typeBehavioural
Participants will be given a restaurant's menu with calorie information or a menu with calorie information and NS labelling.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant 1 | Active comparator | Restaurant 1: plant-based cafe Receives: Behavioral: menu labelling type |
| Restaurant 2 | Active comparator | Restaurant 2: University cafe Receives: Behavioral: menu labelling type |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Perceived Message Effectiveness
An adapted version of the University of North Carolina PME scale will be used to measure health concern, product attitude, and discouragement of item consumption in response to the food menu. Participants will be given the menu they ordered from to look at. All participants will answer 3 questions using a Likert scale ranging from 1 - 5 anchored by "not at all" and "a great deal". The mean response to the three items will be calculated. PME is used as an early indicator of a health message's potential to change behaviour (e.g., reduce selection of less healthy items). The scale has been used previously to identify the potential impact of food labels and is predictive of long-term behaviour.
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Nutritional quality of each item and for the full meal
Nutritional quality for meal choices will be calculated using the UK NPM scoring system. This calculates a score (continuous variable) for a product by deducting a total score for positive nutrients from a total score for negative nutrients. A lower score represents greater nutritional quality and a higher score represents poorer nutritional quality.
We will calculate the mean NPM score weighted by energy content of items for each participant. This will ensure that the NPM score of main dishes will be weighted higher than that of starters or sides (assuming energy content of selected main is higher than any starters or sides), leading to a more representative overall NPM score for food orders. This will be done using the weighted.mean function in R. This function multiplies each value (i.e. NPM scores for individual items) by its corresponding weight (kcal content of individual items), sums all items and then divides this by the sum of the weights.
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Secondary outcomes (4)
NS label of each item selected
A NS category value will be recorded for each item selected by participants (A,B,C,D,E)
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Energy content of all food ordered
The sum of energy (kcal) across all foods ordered for the meal will be calculated
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Energy and nutrients consumed
Researchers will take pictures of plates before and after each item is given to participants. Researchers will estimate the percentage of each dish consumed.
Participants will be asked whether they shared any of their meal with someone else and this will be taken into account when making percentage estimates. A random 10% of percentage estimates will be performed by a second researcher to measure reliability.
Energy and nutrient consumption will be calculated by multiplying the total energy/nutritional content of food items selected/consumed by the estimated proportion of the item consumed. Nutrients explored will be salt, sugar, fat, saturated fat, protein and fibre.
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Later intake
The morning after participants take part in the study, they will be emailed with a link to complete a dietary recall survey (via intake 24, https://intake24.co.uk/). Participants will report everything they ate after the study session up until they went to bed. They will be asked to provide as much detail as possible on what they had for dinner, snacks, and drinks after the study session. We will estimate based on data from Intake 24, later consumption (kcal, salt, fat, saturated fat, sugar, protein, fibre).
Measured: Up to 30 weeks
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted11 Apr 2025
- Study start27 Mar 2025
- Primary completion1 Aug 2025
- Study completion1 Aug 2025
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for PMEStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 672 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Liverpool
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Bristol, Liverpool John Moores University
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Eric Robinson, University of Liverpool
- Investigators
- Eric Robinson, Principal investigator, University of Liverpool
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06923241
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- NS in the OOHFS study
- Status last verified
- Feb 2026
- First submitted
- 26 Mar 2025
- Last updated
- 20 Feb 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Yes: Anonymised participant data will be placed on the Open Science Framework in case other researchers want to use in the future.
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 20 Feb 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Nutri-score Labelling in a UK Restaurant Setting: a Randomised Control Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06923241
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- NS in the OOHFS study
- Conditions
- PME, Food Choice, Food Labelling
- Keywords
- Nutri-score, PME, Food choice
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 672 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of LiverpoolUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- University of Bristol, Liverpool John Moores University
- Study start
- 27 Mar 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 1 Aug 2025 (actual)
- Study completion
- 1 Aug 2025 (actual)
- First posted
- 11 Apr 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
An experiment exploring the perceived effectiveness of Nutri-score food labels with calorie labelling compared to calorie labelling only on food choice and consumption in a real-world setting
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant 1 | Active comparator | Behavioral: menu labelling typeRestaurant 1: plant-based cafe |
| Restaurant 2 | Active comparator | Behavioral: menu labelling typeRestaurant 2: University cafe |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Can visit a restaurant in Liverpool city centre
- Regularly eat food prepared out of the home (from restaurants, cafes, fast food etc., at least once a month)
- Over the age of 18 years
- Fluent English speaker
Key exclusion criteria (2 listed)
- Pregnant/breastfeeding
- You have been diagnosed with a current or historic eating disorder
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| menu labelling typeParticipants will be given a restaurant's menu with calorie information or a menu with calorie information and NS labelling. | Behavioural | Restaurant 1, Restaurant 2 |
Primary outcome
Perceived Message Effectiveness
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
An adapted version of the University of North Carolina PME scale will be used to measure health concern, product attitude, and discouragement of item consumption in response to the food menu. Participants will be given the menu they ordered from to look at. All participants will answer 3 questions using a Likert scale ranging from 1 - 5 anchored by "not at all" and "a great deal". The mean response to the three items will be calculated. PME is used as an early indicator of a health message's potential to change behaviour (e.g., reduce selection of less healthy items). The scale has been used previously to identify the potential impact of food labels and is predictive of long-term behaviour.
Nutritional quality of each item and for the full meal
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
Nutritional quality for meal choices will be calculated using the UK NPM scoring system. This calculates a score (continuous variable) for a product by deducting a total score for positive nutrients from a total score for negative nutrients. A lower score represents greater nutritional quality and a higher score represents poorer nutritional quality. We will calculate the mean NPM score weighted by energy content of items for each participant. This will ensure that the NPM score of main dishes will be weighted higher than that of starters or sides (assuming energy content of selected main is higher than any starters or sides), leading to a more representative overall NPM score for food orders. This will be done using the weighted.mean function in R. This function multiplies each value (i.e. NPM scores for individual items) by its corresponding weight (kcal content of individual items), sums all items and then divides this by the sum of the weights.
4 secondary outcomes
NS label of each item selected
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
Energy content of all food ordered
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
Energy and nutrients consumed
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
Later intake
Time frame: Up to 30 weeks
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 20 Feb 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Yes. Anonymised participant data will be placed on the Open Science Framework in case other researchers want to use in the future.
Related trials for PME
Not yet recruiting
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Eric Robinson principal investigator
University of Liverpool
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing menu labelling type in people with PME and Food Choice, run by University of Liverpool at 1 site in United Kingdom.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 20 Feb 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United Kingdom. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Perceived Message Effectiveness (time frame: Up to 30 weeks). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 20 Feb 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 30 Oct 2026.