This paper reports results from three consecutive studies focusing on the comparison of the effectiveness of different nudges and their combinations to increase sustainable food choices out of the home. The nudges compared are the use of descriptive name labels (DNLs) for the most sustainable dish of a choice set (menu) and the decoy effect (DE), created by adding a less attractive decoy dish to a more attractive target dish with the goal of increasing the choice frequency of the target dish. In the literature, both nudges have been found to influence consumers’ choices. In the first study, six category names of sustainability indicators were deduced from a focus group. These were tested with 100 students to identify the most attractive DNLs. Study II, a randomized choice study (n = 420), tested the DE, the DNLs and a combination of the DNLs and the DE used on four different dishes in a university canteen. In study III, 820 guests of a business canteen voted during four weeks for the special meals of the following week (identical to the four choice sets displayed in study II). Results indicate that the combination of DNLs and the DE is not recommended for fostering sustainable food choices. Pure DNLs were more efficient in increasing the choice frequency of the more sustainable meal, whereas the decoy effect resulted in decreased choice frequencies. Regional and sustainable DNLs were favoured by consumers.

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Zusammenfassung: Um die globalen Nachhaltigkeitsziele zu erreichen sind die Ernährungsentscheidungen, die Gäste in der Außer-Haus-Gastronomie treffen, von besonderer Bedeutung. Welcher Nudge am besten geeignet ist, um Gäste zu einem nachhaltigen Ernährungsverhalten zu stupsen, wurde in fünf unterschiedlichen Reallaboren der Außer-Haus-Gastronomie von Herbst 2016 bis Frühjahr 2017 in vier deutschen Städten getestet. Die Reallabore repräsentieren dabei die drei Segmente der Außer-Haus-Gastronomie - Betrieb, Pflege, Bildung. Erstmals wurden dazu drei identische Nudges zur Steigerung des Abverkaufs der nachhaltigsten Gerichte des Tages standardisiert verglichen. Um eine Vergleichbarkeit zwischen den Reallaborsettings und über den Erhebungszeitraum hinweg zu erzielen, wurde zur Bewertung der Nachhaltigkeit der Gerichte ein eigens entwickeltes Instrument verwendet sowie die Speisepläne zwischen den beteiligten Kantinen harmonisiert. Es zeigt sich, dass der aus Sicht der Unternehmen einfachste der getesteten Nudges allen anderen hinsichtlich der Wirksamkeit zur Steigerung des Absatzes nachhaltiger Speisen in der Außer-Haus-Gastronomie tendenziell überlegen ist. Summary: To achieve the sustainable development goals, it is important to take consumers’ food choices into account which oftentimes take place in the out-of-home catering sector. To influence consumer choice towards a more sustainable nutrition behavior three different nudges in five real life laboratories were tested. Until now—to our knowledge—there are no scientific publications about standardized comparisons of the nudges examined in this study. From autumn 2016 to spring 2017 these nudges were applied to the most sustainable dishes of the day in three different canteen settings (business, care, education) in four German cities. The comparability is ensured through a specifically developed sustainability assessment tool as well as the harmonization of the menus between the settings and across time. One nudge tended to be most efficient for increasing sales of sustainable dishes out-of-home in all settings of the out-of-home catering sector.

Sustainable meal choices in the out-of-home catering market are essential to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. This study investigated consumers’ acceptance of different features that help service providers to work more sustainably. For this purpose, data of a choice experiment and a supporting online questionnaire were analyzed using latent class analysis (LCA) and the data of n = 373 employees. Examined attributes in the choice experiment were menu variety, menu type, ordering system, ingredients and price. LCA led to four consumer segments: variety seekers (27.6%), spontaneous decisionmakers—vegetarian (25.7%), spontaneous decisionmakers—meat (24.1%) and vegetarians/vegans (22.6%). Results showed that consumers in all four segments expected to have the choice between different menus in company canteens. Moreover, they preferred spontaneous choice to preordering. Both preferences hamper sustainable production and consumption in the catering sector.

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