Thinking inside the box: Towards consumers making informed and healthy food choices

Although legislation prohibits misleading food packaging, it is a common problem that hinders consumers from making healthy and informed food choices.

Legally speaking, a food package is misleading if that package as a whole is misleading to “the average consumer”. However, behavioral science research suggests that this legal assumption clashes with what is truly misleading to many consumers. Differing interpretations of deception standards by judges may also create unfair competition among food producers.

De Jager's interdisciplinary research project aims to improve EU legislation and case law on misleading food packaging to promote informed and healthy food choices. Comparative law and psychological empirical research will be used to achieve this goal. The project will start in June 2025 and take a year.

Duration of the project

2025 - 2026

Awarded grant

50,000 euros, obtained from the NWO SGW Open Competition XS program

Contact person at our Faculty

Mr. dr. C.E. (Carien) de Jager

Website with additional information