Valerie Reyna is Co-PI on a two-year grant, De-stigmatizing Fruits and Vegetables in School Cafeterias, ” with Brian Wansink and David Just from the Department of Applied Economics and Management. The grant from the USDA Economic Research Service will investigate whether changing the way fruits and vegetables are named in school cafeterias can increase their consumption (in free and reduced-price lunches), their ala cart purchases, and their subsequent taste-evaluations.

There has been ongoing concern that students tend to eat insufficient amounts of fruits and vegetables in school cafeterias.  Increasing the intake of fruits and vegetables could have a positive impact on nutrition and health, and it may also lead to a reduction in the intake of other foods, such as those that are more caloric and less nutritionally dense. Part of the reason fruits and vegetables are not widely consumed may be because some people have stigmatized them as being less tasty than other alternatives.  Recent research with preschoolers by Wansink and Just has indicated, however, that it may be possible to de-stigmatize fruits and vegetables. They found that labeling carrots as “X-Ray Vision Carrots” increased consumption by 62% and this increase in intake persisted the day after the study was completed.

This labeling strategy represents an approach that focuses on consumption-related consequences (X-Ray vision).  Another approach would be to use a taste or sensory-suggestive label.  For instance, cafeteria studies with adults have shown that labeling foods with sensory-suggestive labels (seafood filet versus Succulent Italian Seafood Filet) dramatically influenced taste ratings and repurchase in a cafeteria.

There is convergent evidence that there is a general notion about the food – a “gist” – that might motivate food choice, and that this choice might reflect both sensory and consequence-related attributes.  For instance, a survey of American children in 1928 indicated that their most favorite food was ice cream and their second most favorite was spinach.  This can be attributed to popularity of the cartoon character, Popeye, and the instant impact eating spinach had on his super-strength.

When people make initial decisions, they are not always based upon reasoned cost-benefit trade-offs.  Instead, decisions are often informed more by impressions or “gists” of alternatives. This conclusion is based on many studies of decision making with children, adolescents, and adults, and led to the formulation of fuzzy-trace theory developed by Valerie Reyna and Charles Brainerd, which will be applied to this project.  There may be at least two easily implementable ways that gists can be induced.  One may be in a sensory-related way (Succulent Italian Seafood Filet) and the other might be in a more consequence-related way (e.g., X-Ray vision carrots).

The research will look at which types of labels, sensory- or consequence-related, are most effective at increasing intake, purchase, and evaluation; how the effectiveness of labels varies between elementary and high school students;  and 3) in an ala cart context, how labels change the amount students are willing to pay for fruits and vegetables.