Abstract
The food retail environment is an important driver of dietary choices. This article presents a national agenda for research in food retail, with the goal of identifying policies and corporate practices that effectively promote healthy food and beverage purchases and decrease unhealthy purchases. The research agenda was developed through a multi-step process that included (1) convening a scientific advisory committee; (2) commissioned research; (3) in-person expert convening; (4) thematic analysis of meeting notes and refining research questions; (5) follow-up survey of convening participants; and (6) refining the final research agenda. Public health researchers, advocates, food and beverage retailers, and funders participated in the agenda setting process. A total of 37 research questions grouped into ten priority areas emerged. Five priority areas focus on understanding the current food retail environment and consumer behavior and five focus on assessing implementation and effectiveness of interventions and policies to attain healthier retail. Priority topics include how frequency, duration, and impact of retailer promotion practices differ by community characteristics and how to leverage federal nutrition assistance programs to support healthy eating. To improve feasibility, researchers should explore partnerships with retailers and advocacy groups, identify novel data sources, and use a variety of study designs. This agenda can serve as a guide for researchers, food retailers, funders, government agencies, and advocacy organizations.
Highlights
The food retail environment is an important driver of dietary choices in the U.S Components of the food retail environment, including access to food retail, availability and price of healthy products in stores, and presence of in-store marketing, all play a role in shaping dietary patterns [1,2]
This article is the first to present a national agenda for research to support healthy food retail, developed iteratively and collaboratively by experts in public health research, advocacy, and food retail and marketing
This research agenda builds on the 2011 Harnessing the Power of Supermarkets to Help Reverse Childhood Obesity report, which proposed in-store marketing strategies developed collaboratively by retailers, researchers, manufacturers, and marketing professionals to encourage the purchase of healthy products while maintaining or improving retailers’ bottom lines [11]
Summary
The food retail environment is an important driver of dietary choices in the U.S Components of the food retail environment, including access to food retail, availability and price of healthy products in stores, and presence of in-store marketing, all play a role in shaping dietary patterns [1,2]. Food and beverage manufacturers spend billions of dollars annually to ensure retailers stock, prominently place, and promote their products [3]. Unhealthy products are promoted more often than healthy products, and evidence suggests that promotion of unhealthy products shapes consumer purchasing more than promotion of healthy products [4,5]. Current dietary patterns, which, compared to the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, are low in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein, and high in sodium, added sugars, Int. J. Public Health 2020, 17, 8141; doi:10.3390/ijerph17218141 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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