ClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT05752786Updated Aug 30, 2023

Evaluation of the "Eat Less Meat" One-month Challenge

An interventional study of "Eat Less Meat" Challenge in Diet, Healthy and Food Habits, sponsored by Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation. Completed at 1 site in France. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-08-30.

Sponsored by Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
366
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

In a context where meat consumption should be dramatically reduced in western countries to improve both population and planet health, the "Eat Less Meat" one-month challenge is a new behavioural intervention that aims (i) to weaken meat consumption habit and (ii) to enhance intrinsic motivation to eat less meat to trigger long-term reduction in meat consumption. The present study focusses on the quantitative evaluation of the effect of this challenge on French university student's meat consumption.

Parallel two-arm randomized controlled trial with repeated measures (online questionnaires) pre-, during- and post-intervention. All the participants will be recruited to take part in the "Eat Less Meat" challenge for one month. Participants in the control group will take part in the challenge 4 months after the participants in the intervention group. Participants in both groups will complete the online questionnaires at the exact same time, i.e., pre-, during- and post-intervention measures will take place before the control group starts the challenge.

02

Conditions studied

  • Diet, Healthy
  • Food Habits

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Keywords

  • meat reduction
  • environmental impact
  • nutritional quality
  • diet
03

In context

Feeding Behavior

985 studies on the registry are indexed under Feeding Behavior; 178 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 366 is above the median of 77 across 700 interventional studies indexed under Feeding Behavior.

Browse Feeding Behavior studies →

Lead sponsor

Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation is the lead sponsor of 14 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • ≥ 18.5
  • University student in 'Bourgogne Franche-Comté'
  • Fluent in French
  • Available email address
  • Available Instagram profile

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Vegetarian or vegan or pescetarian
  • Pregnant/breastfeeding
  • Iron deficiency
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(1)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
366 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    "Eat Less Meat" challenge

    Participants take part in the "Eat Less Meat" challenge

    Behavioral: "Eat Less Meat" Challenge

  • Other
    "Eat Less Meat" challenge later

    Participants take part in the "Eat Less Meat" challenge 4 months after the participants in the experimental arm, i.e., after all measures completion

    Behavioral: "Eat Less Meat" Challenge

Interventions

  • Behavioral"Eat Less Meat" Challenge

    Participants will be able to choose their goal for the challenge for one month: (i) no meat, (ii) meat 3 times a week, (iii) meat 6 times a week (which will need to be lower than current consumption). The first day of the challenge, the participants will receive by email a cookbook and a starter kit with advices and motivational tips, then they will receive an email each week with more advices and motivational tips. Participants will be also asked to follow the Instagram account of the challenge during one month where (i) one post will be posted each day, (ii) engaging stories requiring interactions will be posted regularly, (iii) participants can ask their questions to the research team, (iv) participants can interact with each other's. The Instagram posts will cover three main topics: (i) knowledge about meat and its impact on health and environment, (ii) tips for meat-free cooking, (iii) social/contextual pressure to eat meat and how to avoid it.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change from Baseline Meat consumption at 1 month (during intervention)

    Meat daily intake (in grams) will be calculated by summing daily intake for all the items of the food frequency questionnaire that fall into the meat category.

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 1

  2. Change from Baseline Meat consumption at 4 months (3 months after intervention)

    Meat daily intake (in grams) will be calculated by summing daily intake for all the items of the food frequency questionnaire that fall into the meat category.

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 4

Secondary outcomes

  1. Change from Baseline Adherence to the French dietary guidelines at 1 month (during intervention)

    Adherence to the French dietary guidelines will be evaluated using the simplified PNNS-GS2. The sPNNS-GS2 builds on the distinction between malus components (less healthy food groups which consumption should be limited, carrying a negative score, i.e., red meat, processed meat, sugary foods, sweet-tasting beverages, alcoholic beverages, salt) and bonus components (healthier food groups carrying a positive score, i.e., fruits and vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole-grain food, milk and dairy products, fish and seafood) reflecting established knowledge on the relationship between food groups consumption and non-communicable disease risk factors. sPNNS-GS2 will computed for each participant (range: -17 to 11.5, with higher scores indicating better adherence to the French dietary guidelines).

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 1

  2. Change from Baseline Adherence to the French dietary guidelines at 4 months (3 months after intervention)

    Adherence to the French dietary guidelines will be evaluated using the simplified PNNS-GS2. The sPNNS-GS2 builds on the distinction between malus components (less healthy food groups which consumption should be limited, carrying a negative score, i.e., red meat, processed meat, sugary foods, sweet-tasting beverages, alcoholic beverages, salt) and bonus components (healthier food groups carrying a positive score, i.e., fruits and vegetables, nuts, legumes, whole-grain food, milk and dairy products, fish and seafood) reflecting established knowledge on the relationship between food groups consumption and non-communicable disease risk factors. sPNNS-GS2 will computed for each participant (range: -17 to 11.5, with higher scores indicating better adherence to the French dietary guidelines).

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 4

  3. Change from Baseline Greenhouse gas emissions at 1 month (during intervention)

    Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) will be calculated by multiplying the daily intake of each food item by its associated GHGEs per kg

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 1

  4. Change from Baseline Greenhouse gas emissions at 4 months (3 months after intervention)

    Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) will be calculated by multiplying the daily intake of each food item by its associated GHGEs per kg

    Time frame: 20 minutes, repeated measures (online food frequency questionnaire): baseline and month 4

  5. Change from Baseline Meat consumption habit at 1 month (during intervention)

    The Self-Report Habit Index will be computed by averaging ratings for all the 12 individual items from the Self-Report Habit questionnaire. Responses will be reported on a 6-point scale anchored by 'strongly disagree' and 'strongly agree' from 1 to 6. The scores will be coded such that high values indicated strong habits.

    Time frame: 3 minutes, repeated measures (online Self-Report Habit questionnaire): baseline and month 1

  6. Change from Baseline Meat consumption habit at 4 months (3 months after intervention)

    The Self-Report Habit Index will be computed by averaging ratings for all the 12 individual items from the Self-Report Habit questionnaire. Responses will be reported on a 6-point scale anchored by 'strongly disagree' and 'strongly agree' from 1 to 6. The scores will be coded such that high values indicated strong habits.

    Time frame: 3 minutes, repeated measures (online Self-Report Habit questionnaire): baseline and month 4

  7. Change from Baseline Food choice motives at 1 month (during intervention)

    The food choice questionnaire (FCQ) includes 30 items and 10 subscales: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, ethical concern and animal welfare. Answers to each item will range from 1 to 4: 1 = Not at all important; 2 = A little important; 3 = Moderately important; 4 = Very important. A score for each motive will be computed by averaging ratings for the three individual items in each of the ten subscales, higher scores indicating higher importance.

    Time frame: 5 minutes, repeated measures (online food choice motives questionnaire): baseline and month 1

  8. Change from Baseline Food choice motives at 4 months (3 months after intervention)

    The food choice questionnaire (FCQ) includes 30 items and 10 subscales: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, ethical concern and animal welfare. Answers to each item will range from 1 to 4: 1 = Not at all important; 2 = A little important; 3 = Moderately important; 4 = Very important. A score for each motive will be computed by averaging ratings for the three individual items in each of the ten subscales, higher scores indicating higher importance.

    Time frame: 5 minutes, repeated measures (online food choice motives questionnaire): baseline and month 4

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation
    Dijon, 21000, France
08

References and documents

Study documents

PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Share on Open Science Framework

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan

Time frame: Before data collection, indefinitely

Access criteria: Open website

Data sharing details ↗ · osf.io

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Ran from Feb 2023 to primary completion in May 2023, 3 months.

Of 503 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Feeding Behavior, half reached primary completion within 14 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 31. This study's 3 months is below that.

Counting every sponsor, half of 515 studies reached it within 14 months; a quarter within 5 and three quarters within 31.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Feb 1, 2023
First posted
Mar 3, 2023
StartActual
Feb 1, 2023
Primary completionActual
May 31, 2023
CompletionActual
Jun 18, 2023
Last update
Aug 30, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Aug 30, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05752786
Lead sponsor
Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Mar 3, 2023
Start date
Feb 1, 2023
Primary completion
May 31, 2023
Completion
Jun 18, 2023
Last update
Aug 30, 2023

Study contacts

Lucile Marty
principal investigator · Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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