Healthy foods or sweets and convenience foods? This is often not only a question of taste, but also of price. A supermarket chain in the Netherlands is therefore starting a nutritional experiment with its customers.
Wholemeal bread or white flour toast, natural yoghurt or chocolate pudding, fresh ingredients to cook yourself or would you prefer the frozen pizza? We often know exactly what would be the better decision for our body. And yet many people in the supermarket choose unhealthy rather than healthy food. On the one hand, because products containing fat and sugar simply taste good. On the other hand, the price is often a criterion. In many cases, it is also a question of the wallet whether you prefer a pack of organic cashew nuts or a pack of potato chips.
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Healthy food should become cheaper in the supermarket
This is exactly why the supermarket chain Coop in the Netherlands is now starting an experiment. In eight of the company’s branches, products that are as unprocessed as possible, fruit and vegetables are becoming cheaper. Unhealthy, high-calorie foods, on the other hand, should become significantly more expensive. And the presentation of the goods is also addressed. Products that contribute to a healthy lifestyle, such as wholemeal pasta and high-fiber muesli, are now on an equal footing. Chips and Co., on the other hand, are being pushed out of the focus of shoppers. Cigarettes and chocolate bars are exchanged for healthy snacks such as unsalted nuts in the checkout area. In addition, healthy foods are identified with a sticker on the shelf as a recommendation.
“The offer and the campaigns in supermarkets are currently primarily aimed at encouraging the purchase of unhealthy food and drinks. That has to change,” explains Carolien Martens from Hartstichting, a Dutch heart foundation that is co-funding the experiment, in the Dutch newspaper AD.
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Will customer buying behavior change?
The experiment, which Coop is conducting in collaboration with scientists from the University Medical Center Amsterdam (UMC), is scheduled to run for a year. The researchers want to find out whether the purchasing behavior of people in the supermarket really changes when healthy food is cheaper, more quickly recognizable as such and more convenient to grab. The researchers have the freedom to change and adjust prices at any time.
According to the Dutch magazine AD, supermarkets in districts where people earn little and often have health problems were selected for the experiment. The researchers selected 115 customers per supermarket branch who make at least half of their weekly purchases there. The research team now also wants to monitor their purchases, eating habits and their health for a year.
By regularly measuring their blood pressure, cholesterol levels and waist circumference, the research team hopes to be able to determine whether the adjustments made at the supermarket are actually having a positive effect on the participants’ health. “We hope to see a small improvement after a year. This would mean that such adaptations would bring significant long-term health benefits for the entire population,» one of the scientists, Josine Stuber of UMC, told AD.
How relevant is the experiment for Germany?
In Germany, the extent to which food advertising influences eating and buying behavior is discussed again and again. Physicians and Foodwatch have recently called for a ban on the advertising of unhealthy foods. After all, children see an average of 15 ads a day that are supposed to whet their appetite for sweets and the like. If the experiment in the Netherlands leads to a healthier lifestyle for the test persons or shows that they are more likely to buy healthy food in the supermarket, this could also spark discussions about similar campaigns in this country.