Foods advertised in US weekly supermarket sales circulars over one year: a content analysis

Nutrition Journal

Research

Sibylle Kranz¹  Collin R Payne²  Leah D Whigham³  Lisa Jahns⁴  Angela J Scheett⁴  Bonita S Hoverson⁴  LuAnn K Johnson⁴ 

[1] Centre for Exercise, Nutrition, and Health Sciences, School of Policy Studies, 8 Priory Road, BS8 1TZ, Bristol, USA;Department of Marketing, New Mexico State University, 88003, Las Cruces, NM, USA;Paso del Norte Institute for Healthy Living, 500 W. University Ave, 79968, El Paso, TX, USA;United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, 58203, Grand Forks, ND, USA;

关键词: Dietary guidelines;    Advertising;    Supermarkets;    Grocery stores;    Promotion;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2891-13-95

 received in 2014-05-22, accepted in 2014-09-15,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe nutritional content of Americans’ shopping carts is suboptimal despite federal dietary guidance, in this case, the MyPlate consumer icon which displays desired proportions of vegetables, fruits, dairy, grains and protein foods for consumption. Consumers mention print advertising—such as weekly sales circulars—frequently as influencing their grocery shopping decisions.MethodsTo examine and describe the relative proportions of advertised foods aggregated into the MyPlate food grouping system, a content analysis of 9 209 foods advertised in 52 weekly supermarket newspaper sales inserts in 2009 from a local grocery chain was conducted in a Midwestern community.ResultsOverall, the protein foods group was most often represented in sales circulars (25% of total items), followed by grains (18%); dairy (10%); vegetables (8%) and fruits (7%). Less than 3% of sales advertisements were for dark green and red & orange vegetables. Over twice as much whole fruit versus 100% fruit juice was advertised (70% vs. 30%, respectively; P < 0.001). Significantly fewer protein foods and more grains than expected were advertised in the fall, and slightly more dark green vegetables were advertised in winter and spring than in summer and fall (P = 0.05).ConclusionsThe average American diet, including underconsumption of fruits and vegetables but overconsumption of protein foods, was reflected in the relative frequency of food groups advertised in weekly sales circulars. Modifying sales circulars to represent healthier food groups may preserve retail profits (considering these groups’ higher profit margin) while promoting adherence to federal dietary guidance.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Jahns et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014