Research & Publications | Healthy Eating Research

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Which Healthy Food Promotion Strategies Within Grocery Retail Settings Are Most Promising?

This review identifies intervention strategies implemented within U.S. grocery retail stores that are effective in improving the healthfulness of shoppers’ food and beverage purchasing and consumption. Results from our review demonstrate that nutritional scoring and nutritional messaging were the most rigorously tested and effective interventions. Additionally, simple interventions yield the most successful results and minimize More

Date: December 2022

Resource Type: Research Brief

Focus Areas: Food Retail

Encouraging Healthier Food and Beverage Purchasing and Consumption: A Review of Interventions within Grocery Retail Settings

This review identifies the most promising intervention strategies for promoting the purchase and consumption of healthier items within U.S. grocery retail settings, with a particular focus on those strategies that may be most effective when implemented within SNAP-authorized retail settings. Searches of nine electronic databases, as well as forward and backward searches, yielded 1942 studies. More

Date: December 2022

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail

SNAP Purchasing Power and Food Insecurity During the Pandemic

Food price inflation is an adverse outcome of COVID-19 that makes nutrition security more difficult for low-income families with children. School closures and pandemic-related assistance programs placed additional strains on the retail food system, which may have further amplified inflationary pressure on the cost of foods needed to support a healthy diet. The goal of More

Keywords: COVID-19, Supermarket

Date: July 2022

Resource Type: Grant Summary

Focus Areas: Nutrition Policy & Programs Pricing & Economics

A click too far from fresh foods: A mixed methods comparison of online and in-store grocery behaviors among low-income households

A recent policy in the U.S. authorized monthly benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to be used online to increase grocery access and promote healthy eating. This study examined online grocery attitudes and purchasing behaviors among low-income SNAP-eligible households with young children with and without online grocery experience. An explanatory sequential mixed methods More

Date: April 2022

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail Nutrition Policy & Programs

The Online Ordering Behaviors among Participants in the Oklahoma Women, Infants, and Children Program: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Online ordering is an innovative method being pilot-tested in some stores to facilitate WIC participants’ food benefit redemption, which has become especially important in the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research aimed to examine the online ordering behaviors among 726 WIC households who adopted WIC online ordering in a grocery chain, XYZ (anonymous) store, in Oklahoma More

Date: February 2022

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Nutrition Policy & Programs

Content Analysis of Online Grocery Retail Policies and Practices Affecting Healthy Food Access

This study aimed to describe policies and practices of online grocery retailers that may affect healthy food access, including retailers participating in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Online Purchasing Pilot. This was a cross-sectional, quantitative content analysis of 21 online grocery retail websites from November 2019 to January 2020. Most retailers More

Keywords: Supermarket

Date: December 2021

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail

Promoting Equitable Expansion of the SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot

The USDA Online Purchasing Pilot, which allows SNAP participants to shop and pay for groceries online, rapidly expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic. From March 2020 to March 2021, the number of participating states increased from 5 to 47. This brief assesses whether the Pilot promotes healthy food access (using the criteria of availability and utilization) More

Date: July 2021

Resource Type: Research Brief

Focus Areas: Food Access Nutrition Policy & Programs

WIC Online Ordering: Opportunities and Issues to Consider During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Click & Collect model is a three-step process for placing a WIC grocery order online, then picking it up and paying for it at the store. This model for online ordering could be an opportunity, during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, to address certain challenges to WIC shopping and benefit redemption. A pilot study More

Date: June 2021

Resource Type: Research Brief

Focus Areas: Nutrition Policy & Programs

USDA Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Vendor Criteria: An Examination of US Administrative Agency Variations

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, is associated with improved healthy food and beverage access due to its requirement for minimum stock of healthy foods and beverages in WIC-eligible stores. The selection and authorization criteria used to authorize WIC vendors varies widely More

Date: March 2021

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Access Nutrition Policy & Programs

Exploring the Reasons for Low Usage and Informing Strategies to Improve Use of a Nonprofit Grocery Store in Baltimore City

Introducing new grocery stores into low-income communities has been a focus of policy efforts to improve the food environment. Yet, evidence of the impact of this strategy on diet and health outcomes is inconsistent. In Baltimore, a not-for-profit grocery store was opened by the Salvation Army in March 2018 with the goal of improving healthy More

Keywords: Supermarket

Date: March 2021

Resource Type: Journal Article

Focus Areas: Food Retail