Report: Recommendations to Promote Healthy Retail Food Environments

The goal of this report is to make recommendations for policy, voluntary actions, and research areas to support in-store and online food environments that make healthy food and beverage choices easier for all consumers. All shoppers face barriers to purchasing nutritious food in a retail environment that disproportionately promotes unhealthy food products. However, retail marketing has an even greater impact on shoppers who use SNAP. The recommendations outlined in this report were informed by a convening of industry, SNAP participant, and public health stakeholders, and are grounded in the promotion of equitable access to healthy foods for all residents of the US.

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Executive summary: Recommendations to Promote Healthy Retail Food Environments

The retail food environment, both in-store and online, is an important driver of dietary choices and dietary quality. Diet quality in the United States is low and contributes to high rates of diet-related chronic health conditions. Inequitable access to healthy food environments and unequal exposure to unhealthy food marketing contribute to persistent differences in diet quality and health outcomes based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In January 2023, the CSPI in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, convened food and beverage retailers and manufacturers, SNAP participants, and public health researchers, practitioners, and advocates. The purpose of this convening was to develop policy recommendations to support healthy food retail and healthy food marketing in-stores and online.

Conceptual framework: healthy retail food environment

The retail food environment plays an important role in guiding consumer purchasing decisions. Retailers leverage product, placement, pricing, and promotion as key marketing strategies to influence consumer behavior both in-store and online. These strategies are disproportionately used to market energy-dense foods that are low in nutrients and contribute to low dietary quality. View the attached resource to learn more.

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