Can in-store interventions reduce the socioeconomic gap in fruit and vegetable purchases in grocery stores? A descriptive study of volume sales from 2012 to 2020 in Norway's largest grocery store chain

Fruits and vegetable (FVs) consumption is an essential determinant of health, and intake is strongly patterned by socioeconomic status (SES). Inside grocery store interventions have increasingly been explored to promote healthier diets, especially for people with lower SES. This study describes how the supermarket chain Kiwi used a combination of in-store interventions to increase annual sales of FVs between 2012 and 2020. In particular, this study examined how sales developed in counties with different demographic characteristics (e.g., education, income, overweight and obesity, and self-reported FVs consumption level) in order to evaluate whether the effect differs between different populations. The primary outcome measurement was annual volume sales, adjusted for new stores opening and closing during the study period, also called like-for-like sales. The study has used a descriptive study design. The chain used interventions such as better placement, promoting healthy foods, giving out discounts, and placing "on the go" FVs and cups with portioned FVs at the cash registry. Results show that like-for-like volume sales of FVs grew by 34.1% during the study period. The increase was especially strong for vegetables, which increased by 41.8%, compared to fruits and berries, which increased by 25%. Sales increased for all eleven counties in Norway. Using the Spearman correlation, a moderately positive association was found between the number of overweight or obese people in counties and the development in FVs sales. To conclude, in-store interventions positively impacted FVs sales. More research in an experimental context is needed to determine if interventions may reduce the socioeconomic gap in FVs consumption.

Dietary Habits and Self-Reported Health Measures Among Norwegian Adults Adhering to Plant-Based Diets

Background

As plant-based diets is increasing, we aimed to investigate dietary habits, dietary motivation and self-reported health of Norwegian adults who adhere to different types of plant-based diets.

Methods

In 2020, 808 subjects (530 women and 278 men) participated in an online survey, including vegans (8%), lacto-ovo vegetarians (16%), pescatarians (23%), and flexitarians (53%).

Results

Half of the participants reported to consume fruits daily, three quarters consumed vegetables daily, and one quarter consumed whole grain products daily. Half of the participants reported weekly consumption of sweets and salted snacks, and 10% reported daily consumption of sugary drinks. Daily consumption of milk and dairy substitutes were reported by vegans (49%), lacto-ovo vegetarians (33%), pescatarians (32%), and flexitarians (25%). Daily consumption of meat replacement products was reported by vegans (3%), lacto-ovo vegetarians (5%), pescatarians (2%). Reported supplement use was highest among vegans (62%) and lowest among flexitarians (28%). Dietary motivations were driven by environmental (71%), health (64%), and animal welfare (49%) concerns, across all dietary groups. 75% reported their self-perceived health to be good or very good.

Conclusion

We found that Norwegian adults adhering to plant-based diets consumed less fruit, vegetables, and whole grain products, together with more sugar than recommended in the Norwegian dietary guidelines. The participants reported their self-perceived health to be good or very good.

Compliance with water advisories after water outages in Norway

Background

Water advisories, especially those concerning boiling drinking water, are widely used to reduce risks of infection from contaminants in the water supply. Since the effectiveness of boil water advisories (BWAs) depends on public compliance, monitoring the public response to such advisories is essential for protecting human health. However, assessments of public compliance with BWAs remain sparse. Thus, this study was aimed at investigating awareness and compliance among residents who had received BWAs in Baerum municipality in Norway.

Method

We conducted a cross-sectional study among 2764 residents who had received water advisories by SMS in the municipality of Baerum between January and September 2017. We analysed data from two focus group discussions and an online survey sent to all residents who had received an advisory. We conducted descriptive analyses and calculated odds ratios (OR) using logistic regression to identify associations of compliance and awareness with demographic characteristics.

Results

Of the 611 respondents, 67% reported that they had received a water advisory notification. Effective compliance rate with safe drinking water practices, either by storing clean drinking water or boiling tap water, after a water outage was 72% among those who remembered receiving a notification. Compliance with safe drinking water advisories was lower among men than women (OR 0.53, 95% CI 0.29–0.96), but was independent of age, education and household type. The main reason for respondents’ non-compliance with safe water practices was that they perceived the water to be safe to drink after letting it flush through the tap until it became clear.

Conclusions

Awareness of advisories was suboptimal among residents who had received notifications, but compliance was high. The present study highlights the need to improve the distribution, phrasing and content of water advisory notifications to achieve greater awareness and compliance. Future studies should include hard-to-reach groups with adequate data collection approaches and examine the use of BWAs in a national context to inform future policies on BWAs.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7504-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Food advertising towards children and young people in Norway

Despite the fact that no studies have been carried out to map the amount of unhealthy food advertising aimed at Norwegian children and adolescents, it is still widely held belief that this type of advertising is disproportionately common. As a consequence, one of the issues high on the agenda in Norway in the 2000s was the possibility of imposing restrictions on advertising for unhealthy foods to children. The purpose of this study is to contribute with a research-based foundation for implementing this health initiative by mapping food marketing in media channels widely used by children and adolescents. In sum, the study shows that the food industry spends a lot of resources to influence young consumers' eating and drinking habits. Compared with studies from USA, UK and Australia, however, there are, strong indications that there is significantly less unhealthy food advertising in Scandinavian countries. Similar to a previous Swedish study, this study shows that Norwegian children and young people were exposed to little advertising for unhealthy food products through media channels such as TV, the Internet, magazines, comics and cinemas. The study also supports critical remarks from some researchers that the extensive use of the international discourse as a political argument and recommendation for Norwegian conditions is not accurate. For the future it may be beneficial to look more closely at the relationship between advertising and health policy, and how this relationship can be further developed to improve children and young people's diet.

Why Are Alternative Diets Such as “Low Carb High Fat” and “Super Healthy Family” So Appealing to Norwegian Food Consumers?

<p>Aspiring for health and fitness has become increasingly important for Norwegians. This is expressed in many ways. For instance there has been a significant increase in the proportion who states that they are very interested in having a healthy diet. Furthermore, three out of ten stated that they had tried diets to achieve weight reduction over the past twelve months. One consequence of this trend is a consumption field that requires a multitude of products and services. This includes everything from food and dietary products that help you realize the dream of a sound, slim, strong, smart and sexy body, to books, blogs and TV shows that guide the individual towards making the right food choices. Through media, books and product launches, consumers are continuously exposed to different theories and beliefs about what and how to eat. A typical characteristic of the diets that have gained wide acceptance over the past few years is that they are in conflict with the national guidelines for a healthy diet. Another tendency is that traditional products in the Norwegian diet such as bread, potatoes and dairy products, in particular, have been up for debate. The purpose of this article is to explore why these alternative and rebellious diets have become so appealing to today’s food consumer. Data are derived from both quantitative and qualitative materials.</p>