Effect of NUTRI-SCORE labeling on sales of food items in stores at sports and non-sports facilities

Abstract

NUTRI-SCORE is a front-of-pack labeling method that relies of the computation of a nutrient profiling system by reconstructing and presenting nutritional information about food items. In particular, different scores are assigned to harmful (energy, sugars, saturated fatty acids, and salt) and beneficial (proteins, fibers, fruits, vegetables, nuts, rapeseed oil, walnut oil, and olive oil) nutrients. These scores are combined to assign a final five different ‘NUTRI-SCORE’ to the food item from healthiest A to most harmful E. This study examined the effect of NUTRI-SCORE labeling on the sales of food items in stores at sports and non-sports facilities. The NUTRI-SCORE label was attached to the price tag of food items sold in two food stores of Seoul National University (sports-related and non-sports-related facilities) for 5 weeks. Baseline sales data from the previous 2 years were obtained from the food stores. The predicted data based on baseline sales were compared to the new sales data during the study period. The data trends were analyzed using interrupted time-series analysis, which showed significant group differences. In the sports-facility store, sales were higher for relatively healthy food items than for less-healthy food items. Conversely, mixed results were observed for sales in the non-sports-facility store. First, sales of Grade A foods decreased but sales of Grade B and Grade E foods increased. Therefore, the results imply that NUTRI-SCORE labeling positively affected sales of healthy foods only in the sports facilities because few people in non-sports facilities sought to purchase healthy foods. These results will help to improve the nutrition-related behavior of food consumers and point to the differences in cognitive consumption patterns between consumers at sports and non-sports facilities.