Ellen Van Loo joins Purdue University faculty

Expert Explores Food Choices and Digital Behavior Research

• Bonnie Johnson
• October 31, 2025
• Media Article

Ellen Van Loo joins Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics, combining global research expertise with a focus on consumer food choices, labeling, and digital behavior to advance healthy and sustainable consumption.

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Dr. Ellen Van Loo, a renowned expert in consumer food behavior, has joined Purdue University’s Department of Agricultural Economics as an associate professor. Her research explores how policies, marketing, and retail contexts influence food decision-making through behavioral and experimental economics.
 

Van Loo joins Purdue through the Moveable Dream Hires program, an initiative designed to attract exceptional faculty who strengthen research and innovation across disciplines.

 
“Her work adds an exciting dimension by expanding research leadership in consumer demand and consumer behaviors, especially surrounding healthy food choices and food systems economics through data-driven insights into how consumers value and respond to food attributes and labeling,” explained Nicole Widmar, professor and department head of agricultural economics.
 

Originally from Belgium, Van Loo earned a master’s in bioscience engineering from Ghent University and later completed a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Arkansas. Her global research includes experiences at Korea University, University of California-Davis, and Arizona State University before joining Wageningen University in the Netherlands as associate professor.
 

“At the start of my Ph.D., I was very interested in how we can inform consumers and how providing information through package design and labeling can guide them to make better, healthier, and more sustainable choices,” said Van Loo.
 

Her recent work focuses on online grocery and meal delivery platforms, studying how digital interventions and personalized tools can help consumers make healthier choices. “The more I’m understanding these choices, the more I realize that simply informing isn’t enough... we need to help consumers adopt an actionable mindset,” Van Loo said.
 

Van Loo believes Purdue offers a collaborative environment to advance impactful research. “Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics is internationally renowned and home to many of the world’s leading experts,” she said. “Being part of such a large, collaborative department creates a great environment for advancing my career.”
 

Photo by: ag.purdue.edu