Identifying and Addressing the "Health Halo" Surrounding Plant-Based Meat Alternatives in Limited-Information Environments.

This article investigates consumer perceptions of plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs) in limited-information environments such as restaurants, focusing on the presence of a "health halo"—a bias where consumers overestimate the healthfulness of PBMAs relative to traditional meat and their objective nutritional content. Across five experiments, findings reveal that consumers significantly underestimate calories, fat, and sodium in PBMAs and believe these products reduce disease risk more than traditional meat, despite nutritional analyses showing comparable or higher levels of some detrimental nutrients in PBMAs. Standard interventions like calorie labeling and nutrition information disclosure on menus do not effectively reduce this health halo; however, encouraging consumers to actively compare nutritional information between PBMAs and traditional meat attenuates misperceptions. The study highlights implications for public health, sustainable consumerism, and policy, suggesting that current labeling practices may be insufficient to inform consumers accurately about PBMAs’ health attributes.