A research study coming out of the US has suggested that replacing sugary drinks and snacks at checkouts with healthier options can be an effective and implementable step in helping consumers make better food decisions.
UC Davis researcher, Jennifer Falbe, led a study based on the healthy checkout policy introduced in Berkeley, California in 2021. The findings showed a 65 per cent relative increase in all compliant healthy checkout facings and a 125 per cent relative increase in compliant food and beverage checkout facings.
With 83 per cent of the city’s checkout swapping sugary treats for healthier options, the policy could be a step towards reducing impulse buying and moving towards a more nutritious grocery experience.
In 2022, based on measured data from the ABS 2022 NHS, 34 per cent of Australian adults were overweight and 32 per cent were living with obesity – approximately 13 million adults cumulatively. In 2018, being overweight (including obesity) was the second leading risk factor contributing to ill health and death, beaten out only by tobacco use.
One strategy to promote healthier choices is to alter the food environment’s architecture by placing healthy food and beverages in highly visible and accessible locations.
In most grocery and convenience stores, candy, sugar-sweetened beverages, and salty snacks are found in prominent locations near front entrances, on aisle endcaps, and in checkout lanes, leading to impulse purchases. Despite evidence that unhealthy marketing practices have a larger effect on low-income and racial and ethnic minority shoppers, these practices have gone unchecked.
In June 2023, Woolworths took this step – announcing that kids confectionery would be removed from checkouts in all its supermarkets, and more healthier food choices with a Health Star Rating (HSR) of 3.5 or above will be rolled out on the front and back of food aisles.
The US study suggests that these kinds of policies are needed to ensure that health-promoting interventions in the food environment are equitably applied in all stores and communities.
In March 2021, the city of Berkeley, California, took a step in this direction by implementing a first-of-its-kind healthy checkout ordinance that restricted the types of food and beverages that could be placed in large stores’ checkout lanes, to include only unsweetened beverages and foods with minimal added sugars (≤5 g/serving) or sodium (≤200 mg/serving).
The findings by Falbe suggest that a citywide policy was feasible, acceptable, and effective for changing the food environment of store checkout lanes, with most stores in Berkeley becoming compliant with the policy without much regulation.
The full report is available here for further reading.
