Point‐of‐sale nutrition information interventions in food retail stores to promote healthier food purchase and intake: A systematic review

Abstract

Providing simple information that identifies healthier/less healthy products at the point‐of‐sale has been increasingly recognized as a potential strategy for improving population diet. This review evaluated the effect on healthiness of food purchasing/intake of interventions that identify specific products as healthier/less healthy at the point‐of‐sale in food retail settings. Five databases were searched for peer‐reviewed randomized controlled or quasi‐experimental trials published 2000–2020. Effects on primary outcomes of the 26 eligible studies (322 stores and 19,002 participants) were positive (n\u2009=\u200914), promising (effective under certain conditions; n\u2009=\u20093), mixed (different effect across treatment arms/outcomes; n\u2009=\u20094), null (n\u2009=\u20093), negative (n\u2009=\u20091), or unclear (n\u2009=\u20091). Shelf‐label studies (three studies of two rating systems across all products) were positive. Technology‐delivered (mobile applications/podcast/kiosk) interventions were positive (n\u2009=\u20093/5) or promising/mixed (n\u2009=\u20092/5). In‐store displays (n\u2009=\u200916) had mixed effectiveness. Interventions provided information on targeted healthier products only (n\u2009=\u200917), unhealthy products only (n\u2009=\u20091), both healthy and unhealthy (n\u2009=\u20092), and across all products (n\u2009=\u20095). No patterns were found between behavior change technique used and effectiveness. Study quality was mixed. These findings indicate that point‐of‐sale interventions identifying healthy/unhealthy options can lead to healthier customer purchasing behavior, particularly those delivered using shelf‐labels or technology. Further research on discouraging unhealthy foods is needed.