Calorie labelling is considered one way to promote healthier food choices in children but currently most schools do not implement food labelling in canteens. This means students are not given information to help them make an informed choices about what they would like to eat. Our study found that introducing Physical Activity Calorie Equivalent (PACE) labelling in school canteens led to a small reduction in sales of cakes and biscuits over a six-week period.
A new approach: PACE labelling
PACE labelling expresses the calorie content of food into the minutes of physical activity required to expend the calories in foods. For example, a muffin containing 600 calories may take an average adolescent 60 mins of running to expend the energy it contains.
Our study tested how useful PACE labelling may be in reducing purchases of foods such as cakes, cookies and biscuits in secondary school canteens. Previous studies have reported that PACE labelling is easier for people to understand and is preferred over traffic light labelling because the PACE information is displayed in a more meaningful way and is easier to interpret.
The research
Eleven secondary schools in England took part in the research over a six-week period. Schools either displayed PACE labelling on sweet treats in their canteen or continued as usual with no labelling.
The study analyses were based on around 99,000 purchases of cakes and biscuits across the eleven schools, with no major issues reported with the implementation of the labels. The study found a small reduction in purchases of cakes and biscuits - approximately 11 fewer purchases per 100 students per week.
What this means
PACE labelling could serve as a useful low-cost strategy to encourage behaviour change and help young people make healthier food choices when purchasing sweet treats from school canteens. However, some schools raised concerns about the possible impact of PACE labelling on students’ mental health, although currently there is no evidence of this.
What’s next?
Future studies should examine the longer-term impacts of PACE labelling in school canteens and determine whether the effects are sustained over time.
Becky Frost NIHR Research Intern
Professor Amanda Daley Professor of Behavioural Medicine and Centre Director