Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Panel: Opportunities to Improve Healthful Decision Making in the Retail Food Environment

(Health Policy)

Americans consume excessive amounts of fat and sugar while under consuming healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables, leading to high rates of obesity and chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. Although it is up to individuals to decide what and how much they eat and drink, environmental and policy changes can impact individual behavior change as they become incorporated in food systems leading to changes in business practices and social norms. The retail food environment can play a vital role in achieving this objective through the use of simple and easy to understand information that helps individuals recognize healthier options and differentiate these choices from less healthy options. This panel examines research aimed at shifting food purchasing preferences toward healthier options by capitalizing on features that exist within the retail food environment. The first paper presents an economic analysis that uses data collected from over 5,000 households to examine the effects of NuVal shelf nutrition labels on consumer food choices. These labels score foods on a scale from 1 to 100 based on an algorithm that profiles 21 nutrients and four nutrition factors. Shelf labeling is one of a small handful of practical policy tools to influence consumer nutrition behavior, especially among lower-income consumers who may benefit more from these interpretive nutrition labels. The second paper presents findings from a randomized-controlled trial examining whether front-of-package (FOP) label information can encourage low-income shoppers to make healthful food purchasing decisions. The study uses a web-based, three-dimensional virtual store environment that allows consumers wander aisles, pick up products, compare labels, and make food purchasing decisions. We will recruit and randomly assigned participants to one of three FOP labeling conditions (evaluative, nutrient-specific, or IOM-style hybrid labels) or to a no FOP label control condition; they will enter the VS environment and complete a six-item shopping task. Our findings will examine the benefits of matching nutrition information to the literacy and numeracy needs of low income shoppers. While there is currently a great deal of interest in promoting FOP nutrition information to help consumers make healthier choices, the multiplicity of FOP systems and the lack of experimental evidence comparing FOP labels has been noted as a serious limitation to advancing nutrition policymaking. The third paper discuss how Shopper Marketing Nutrition Interventions can improve SNAP & WIC fruit and vegetable purchasing through implementation of tools that are salient, easy-to-understand, and provide suggestions that SNAP and WIC shoppers can use to compare against their current shopping behavior. Results discuss the development of a data tool that allows easy extraction of retailer data to evaluate if Shopper Marketing Nutrition Interventions are effective (e.g., increased purchase of healthier items and the content of the healthier items), as well as whether the interventions help by enhancing retailer profitability. Each of these papers addresses a different avenue for informing consumers in the retail food environment, collective demonstrating that simple, accurate information and subtle prompts about the healthfulness of products can be used to improve diet and health.