Table 1.

Summary of nudging intervention

Nudging Intervention	Specifics
Proportion increases	The proportion of plant-based mains was increased at two stations to be equal to the proportion of meat-based mains. No new items were introduced, but the menu rotation was adjusted, and chicken tenders were removed from the menu so that, at minimum, 50 % of the items served at each station were plant-based during the intervention period
Item placement	Plant-based items were moved and listed as the first item on dining hall and online menus
Taste-focused labelling	Words that highlighted the animal-free aspects of a dish were removed and were replaced with taste-focused labelling using the Edgy Veggies Toolkit offered by Stanford’s SPARQ tools(30). This approach utilises descriptions of specific flavours, ingredients and preparation methods to elevate diners’ expectations of a positive taste experience. For example, dishes such as ‘Marinated tofu’ and ‘Pasta salad’ were renamed to ‘Fresh avocado and ponzu marinated tofu salad’ and ‘Tuscan sundried tomato rotini salad’ respectively.
Chef’s Pick	Working closely with dining hall personnel (dietitians, sous chefs), plant-based items that met Canada’s Food Guide Friendly principles(31) were selected to be promoted as a ‘Chef’s Pick’. A single menu item from each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) was highlighted each week as the ‘Chef’s Pick’. These Chef’s Pick items were incorporated into posters featuring Health Canada’s Food Guide Friendly branding (Fig. 1). The Chef’s Pick was also promoted by the university’s dining hall marketing team. Social media promotion for the Chef’s Pick occurred via the dining hall’s Food Service Instagram pages. One social media post per week (six over the intervention period) was released in collaboration with the university’s marketing teams to promote a Chef’s Pick. The posts featured Health Canada branding using vibrant photos of the Chef’s Pick dish. The design/timing of the social media post was decided by the marketing team.
Verbal prompts	Dining hall staff were provided with sample prompts to promote the Chef’s Pick items by speaking about their flavourful components to students during meal selection. Examples of prompting sentences included: • Have you had a chance to try ____? It’s our chef’s choice. • We use ___ in our chef’s choice. Have you tried it yet?
Health Canada Promotional materials	Promotional materials designed by Health Canada(31) (i.e. digital and paper posters) were used to promote plant-based foods. Posters promoting specific food items were placed next to the item being promoted (i.e. posters promoting fruit and vegetable selection were placed near fruit baskets). Digital posters were used in the weekly social media posts. Food Guide Friendly posters were placed in entryways and at serving stations at the staff’s discretion; these materials were rotated over the 6 weeks