Nudging food purchases towards health: trends in price promotions and nutrient claims on packaged foods and beverages
Authors: Taillie Lindsey Smith , Ng Shu Wen , Xue Ya , Harding Matthew 
Published: June 2021

Despite substantial literature on how to improve the food environment, there has been little work examining how price promotions and nutrient‐related claims are associated with the nutrient profile of food purchases. The objective of this study is to examine trends in the proportion of packaged food and beverage purchases with a price promotion or nutrient claim, whether these claims are associated with an improved nutritional profile, and differences by household socio‐economic status (SES) and race/ethnicity.

We used a transaction‐level database on prices (with/without promotions) and nutrition‐related claims of over 17 million food purchases in a panel of over 40,000 US households in 2008 to 2012. We examined whether the proportion of packaged foods and beverages with a price promotion (any/no promotion) or “low‐content” nutrient claim (e.g. low‐calorie, sugar, total fat, saturated fat, and sodium) changed from 2008 to 2012 or differed by household SES and race/ethnicity. We also tested whether these products differed with regards to nutritional profile.

The proportion of purchases with a price promotion increased from 26% in 2008 to 33% in 2012. In 2012, Asian households had more purchases with a price promotion (38%) compared to White (34%), Black (28%) and Hispanic (31%) households. Surprisingly, low SES had relatively fewer purchases with a price promotion than high SES households (29% vs. 36%). Per transaction, foods with price promotions had higher mean calories than did those without price promotions (1769 ± 1.3 kcal vs. 1693 ± 1.0 kcal), and this disparity was greater for beverages (1399 ± 2.6 kcal for transactions with price promotions vs. 1302 ± 1.4 kcal without). There were no changes in the percent of transactions with nutrient claims from 2008 to 2012, nor differences by race/ethnicity or SES. In 2012, low‐fat claims were the most common (10% of foods, 19% of beverages), followed by low‐calorie claims (3% of foods, 9% of beverages), and then low‐sugar and low‐sodium claims (each representing 2% of food and beverage transactions). Transactions with any low‐content nutrient claim had lower average calories, sugar, sodium, and total fat than products without. For example, foods with a low‐calorie claim had lower calories than those without (974 ± 15 kcal vs. 1779 ± 0.9 kcal) but also were lower in fat (48 ± 0.1 g vs. 79 ± 0.1g), sugar (66 ± 0.2 vs 91 ± 0.1g), and sodium(1781 ± 4.9 vs.3510 ± 6.2mg).

In conclusion, price promotions are an increasingly frequent feature of both foods and beverages, but are associated with poorer nutritional quality, whereas low‐content nutrient claims are more common among beverages, and are associated with better nutritional quality, even for nutrients for which they do not necessarily have a claim. It is unclear why lower SES households had fewer transactions with price promotions. Future work will examine potential selectivity issues associated with where low‐SES households shop and if the type of retailer affects price promotions, as well as how price promotions and nutrient claims affect disparities in the nutritional quality of purchases by race/ethnicity and SES.

Support or Funding Information

This work was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture.