Rachel Pechey
PhD
Associate Professor
Behavioural scientist focused on healthier, sustainable and equitable food purchasing and consumption
I lead the Food Purchasing theme in the Sustainable Healthy Food Group. My research interests include exploring the effectiveness of different interventions that alter aspects of the physical micro-environment (also known as 'choice architecture' or nudges) to improve the healthiness and sustainability of diets. I am interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying the impact of such interventions, and their potential impact on health inequalities.
I am currently working on a Wellcome Trust & Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, which aims to establish the extent to which evidence from interventions to support healthier diets can inform interventions to create urgently needed sustainable diets. Evidence from interventions targeting unhealthy diets could help quickly narrow down our choice of interventions to increase sustainable food selections. However, we need to ensure that the effectiveness of interventions does not change when targeting sustainability. We also want to identify interventions that work for those in all socioeconomic positions, so these do not increase inequalities.
Recent publications
-
Testing the effect of a dynamic descriptive social norm message on meat-free food selection in worksite cafeterias: a randomized controlled trial
Journal article
Çoker EN. et al, (2025), BMC Medicine, 23
-
Testing the effect of ecolabels on the environmental impact of food purchases in worksite cafeterias: a randomised controlled trial
Journal article
Luick M. et al, (2025), BMC Public Health, 25
-
Healthy eating interventions conducted in small, local restaurants and hot food takeaways: a systematic review
Journal article
Jostock C. et al, (2025), Public Health Nutrition, 28
-
Assessing adherence to the UK Government’s sugar, salt, and calorie reduction targets by the highest-grossing restaurants’ menus in 2024: A cross-sectional study
Preprint
O’Hagan A. et al, (2025)
-
Retraction notice to “Effects of environmental impact and nutrition labelling on food purchasing: An experimental online supermarket study” [Appetite 180 (2023) 106312] (Appetite (2023) 180, (S0195666322004032), (10.1016/j.appet.2022.106312))
Journal article
Potter C. et al, (2025), Appetite, 205