Evidence synthesis to inform mandatory reporting of food sales and retail targets for healthy food

This research will comprise three projects that synthesise the evidence on why and how retail marketing strategies are adopted by food businesses, and how they lead to changes in consumer behaviour.

Background

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Improving diet quality is essential to reducing the number of people living with an unhealthy weight and the burden of diet-related disease. The 10 Year Health Plan committed to introducing mandatory reporting of healthy food sales for all large food businesses and mandatory targets for retailers to make the average shopping basket healthier, by the end of the current Parliament. We do not fully understand how businesses will respond to these policy triggers but it is plausible that food businesses willa dopt one or more retail marketing strategies to improve the healthiness of their food sales.

The Healthy Weight PRU will conduct a series of projects to provide evidence that will inform the development of these policies. Through this we will conduct two AI-assisted rapid reviews to understand why and how businesses use marketing strategies and which are most effective in impacting consumer behaviour change. To support the mandatory retail targets policy, we will conduct a comprehensive scoping review to map all the relevant literature to better understand the depth and strength of evidence in relation to the effectiveness of retail marketing strategies specifically in affective consumer purchasing behaviour and price. 

Aims and Objectives

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Project 1. Motivations and Barriers Behind Voluntary Food Industry Initiatives to Improve Health in the UK

Aim: To conduct a rapid AI-assisted systematic review to determine what motivates food businesses (retailers, manufacturers, and out-of-home providers) to voluntarily adopt healthier food initiatives

Project 2. Retailer-Focused Marketing Strategies and Consumer Behaviours

Aim: To conduct a rapid AI-assisted review of reviews to synthesise the evidence on the impact of marketing strategies in or via retail settings on consumers' behaviour outcomes

Project 3. Retail Marketing Strategies, Purchasing, and Prices: A Scoping Review to Inform Healthy Food Targets

Aim: To conduct a scoping review to map and synthesise the existing evidence on how retail marketing strategies affect consumer food purchasing behaviour, food prices, and affordability

Methodology

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The two AI-assisted rapid reviews will be undertaken using Elicit to identify and synthesise relevant literature. \these reviews will be conducted rapidly to meet policy timeframes and will have key limitations. These reviews will not be as rigorous as full systematic reivews and the resulting evidence will be treated as indicative.

A comprehensive scoping review will be conducted in line with PRISMA guidelines for Scoping Reviews. Vote counting will be employed to show the depth and direction of effects for relevant evidence. This review will produce an evidence map to visualise the distribution of evidence across intervention types and outcomes. 

Policy Relevance and Dissemination

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Findings from these reviews will be shared with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) through oral presentations and three policy briefing reports to inform impact assessments in relation to these policies. Findings from the scoping review will be disseminated academically through conference presentations and an academic paper.

Timing

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September 2025 - June 2026

 

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The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Healthy Weight is part of the NIHR and hosted by UCL.