Oral Presentation Australian & New Zealand Obesity Society 2016 Annual Scientific Meeting

Invited talk: Nudging supermarket customers toward healthier eating (#12)

Adrian Cameron 1
  1. Deakin University, Burwood, Vic, Australia

The primary drivers of unhealthy diets are food environments that encourage unhealthy eating. Australian supermarkets are our primary source of food, with marketing techniques in this environment (manipulation of promotion, product, price and placement) having the potential to improve the healthiness of consumer food purchases at a population level. The current Australian supermarket environment (both within-store and in catalogues) will be reviewed, including how it compares internationally. Following on from this, the results of a series of recently completed within-store interventions in Australian supermarkets will be presented. These trials were a collaboration between retail, local government, state government and academic partners and were conducted in eight supermarkets in regional Victoria. Primary outcome assessment was whole-store sales of healthy and unhealthy food based on store sales data (scanner data). The low-cost, scalable and feasible interventions tested included labelling, signage and positioning interventions. Customer perceptions of these interventions, and the financial effect on the retailer were also assessed and will be discussed.