%0 Journal Article %J Public Health Nutrition %D 2023 %T National trends and disparities in retail food environments in the USA between 1990 and 2014 %A Jana A Hirsch %A Zhao, Yuzhe %A Steven Melly %A Kari A Moore %A Nicolas Berger %A James Quinn %A Andrew Rundle %A Gina S Lovasi %B Public Health Nutrition %V 26 %8 Jan-05-2023 %G eng %N 5 %R 10.1017/S1368980023000058 %0 Journal Article %J PLOS Medicine %D 2022 %T Changes in household food and drink purchases following restrictions on the advertisement of high fat, salt, and sugar products across the Transport for London network: A controlled interrupted time series analysis %A Amy Yau %A Nicolas Berger %A Cherry Law %A Laura Cornelsen %A Robert Greener %A Jean Adams %A Emma J. Boyland %A Thomas Burgoine %A Frank de Vocht %A Matt Egan %A Vanessa Er %A Amelia A. Lake %A Karen Lock %A Oliver Mytton %A Mark Petticrew %A Claire Thompson %A Martin White %A Steven Cummins %E Barry M. Popkin %K Advertising %K Diet %K food %K Obesity %K POLICY %X

Background

Restricting the advertisement of products with high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) content has been recommended as a policy tool to improve diet and tackle obesity, but the impact on HFSS purchasing is unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of HFSS advertising restrictions, implemented across the London (UK) transport network in February 2019, on HFSS purchases.

Methods and findings

Over 5 million take-home food and drink purchases were recorded by 1,970 households (London [intervention], n = 977; North of England [control], n = 993) randomly selected from the Kantar Fast Moving Consumer Goods panel. The intervention and control samples were similar in household characteristics but had small differences in main food shopper sex, socioeconomic position, and body mass index. Using a controlled interrupted time series design, we estimated average weekly household purchases of energy and nutrients from HFSS products in the post-intervention period (44 weeks) compared to a counterfactual constructed from the control and pre-intervention (36 weeks) series. Energy purchased from HFSS products was 6.7% (1,001.0 kcal, 95% CI 456.0 to 1,546.0) lower among intervention households compared to the counterfactual. Relative reductions in purchases of fat (57.9 g, 95% CI 22.1 to 93.7), saturated fat (26.4 g, 95% CI 12.4 to 40.4), and sugar (80.7 g, 95% CI 41.4 to 120.1) from HFSS products were also observed. Energy from chocolate and confectionery purchases was 19.4% (317.9 kcal, 95% CI 200.0 to 435.8) lower among intervention households than for the counterfactual, with corresponding relative reductions in fat (13.1 g, 95% CI 7.5 to 18.8), saturated fat (8.7 g, 95% CI 5.7 to 11.7), sugar (41.4 g, 95% CI 27.4 to 55.4), and salt (0.2 g, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.2) purchased from chocolate and confectionery. Relative reductions are in the context of secular increases in HFSS purchases in both the intervention and control areas, so the policy was associated with attenuated growth of HFSS purchases rather than absolute reduction in HFSS purchases. Study limitations include the lack of out-of-home purchases in our analyses and not being able to assess the sustainability of observed changes beyond 44 weeks.

Conclusions

This study finds an association between the implementation of restrictions on outdoor HFSS advertising and relative reductions in energy, sugar, and fat purchased from HFSS products. These findings provide support for policies that restrict HFSS advertising as a tool to reduce purchases of HFSS products.

%B PLOS Medicine %V 19 %8 May-02-2023 %G eng %N 2 %R 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003915 %0 Journal Article %J Nature Food %D 2022 %T Combined carbon and health taxes outperform single-purpose information or fiscal measures in designing sustainable food policies %A Michela Faccioli %A Cherry Law %A Catherine A Caine %A Nicolas Berger %A Yan, Xiaoyu %A Federico Weninger %A Cornelia Guell %A Brett Day %A Richard D. Smith %A Ian J. Bateman %K Climate-change mitigation %K Climate-change policy %K HEALTH POLICY %X

The food system is a major source of both environmental and health challenges. Yet, the extent to which policy-induced changes in the patterns of food demand address these challenges remains poorly understood. Using a survey-based, randomized controlled experiment with 5,912 respondents from the United Kingdom, we evaluate the potential effect of carbon and/or health taxes, information and combined tax and information strategies on food purchase patterns and the resulting impact on greenhouse gas emissions and dietary health. Our results show that while information on the carbon and/or health characteristics of food is relevant, the imposition of taxes exerts the most substantial effects on food purchasing decisions. Furthermore, while carbon or health taxes are best at separately targeting emissions or dietary health challenges, respectively, a combined carbon and health tax policy maximizes benefits in terms of both environmental and health outcomes. We show that such a combined policy could contribute to around one third of the reductions in residual emissions required to achieve the United Kingdom’s 2050 net-zero commitments, while discouraging the purchase of especially unhealthy snacks, sugary drinks and alcohol and increasing the purchase of fruit and vegetables.

%B Nature Food %V 3 %8 Jan-05-2022 %G eng %N 5 %R 10.1038/s43016-022-00482-2 %0 Journal Article %J Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences %D 2021 %T Rational policymaking during a pandemic %A Loïc Berger %A Nicolas Berger %A Valentina Bosetti %A Itzhak Gilboa %A Lars Peter Hansen %A Christopher Jarvis %A Massimo Marinacci %A Richard D. Smith %B Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences %V 118 %8 Feb-01-2023 %G eng %N 4 %R 10.1073/pnas.2012704118 %0 Journal Article %J Cities & Health %D 2020 %T COVID-19: impact on the urban food retail system and dietary inequalities in the UK %A Steven Cummins %A Nicolas Berger %A Laura Cornelsen %A Judith Eling %A Vanessa Er %A Robert Greener %A Alexandra Kalbus %A Amanda Karapici %A Cherry Law %A Denise Ndlovu %A Amy Yau %B Cities & Health %8 Mar-08-2020 %G eng %R 10.1080/23748834.2020.1785167 %0 Journal Article %J Public Health Nutrition %D 2020 %T Have socio-economic inequalities in sugar purchasing widened? A longitudinal analysis of food and beverage consumer data from British households, 2014–2017 %A Nicolas Berger %A Steven Cummins %A Richard D Smith %A Laura Cornelsen %B Public Health Nutrition %8 Mar-12-2021 %G eng %R 10.1017/S1368980020005029 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health %D 2020 %T Longitudinal associations between neighbourhood trust, social support and physical activity in adolescents: evidence from the Olympic Regeneration in East London (ORiEL) study %A Nicolas Berger %A Daniel Lewis %A Matteo Quartagno %A Edmund Njeru Njagi %A Steven Cummins %B Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health %8 Aug-05-2020 %G eng %R 10.1136/jech-2019-213412 %0 Journal Article %J PLOS Medicine %D 2020 %T Patterns of beverage purchases amongst British households: A latent class analysis %A Nicolas Berger %A Steven Cummins %A Alexander Allen %A Richard D. Smith %A Laura Cornelsen %B PLOS Medicine %V 17 %8 Aug-09-2020 %G eng %N 9 %R 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003245 %0 Journal Article %J Social Science & Medicine %D 2019 %T Associations between school and neighbourhood ethnic density and physical activity in adolescents: Evidence from the Olympic Regeneration in East London (ORiEL) study %A Nicolas Berger %A Daniel Lewis %A Matteo Quartagno %A Edmund Njeru Njagi %A Steven Cummins %B Social Science & Medicine %V 237 %8 Jan-09-2019 %G eng %R 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112426 %0 Journal Article %J Social Science & Medicine %D 2019 %T Disparities in trajectories of changes in the unhealthy food environment in New York City: A latent class growth analysis, 1990–2010 %A Nicolas Berger %A Tanya K. Kaufman %A Michael D.M. Bader %A Andrew G. Rundle %A Stephen J. Mooney %A Kathryn M. Neckerman %A Gina S. Lovasi %B Social Science & Medicine %V 234 %8 Jan-08-2019 %G eng %R 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112362 %0 Journal Article %J BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health %D 2019 %T Recent trends in energy and nutrient content of take-home food and beverage purchases in Great Britain: an analysis of 225 million food and beverage purchases over 6 years %A Nicolas Berger %A Steven Cummins %A Richard D Smith %A Laura Cornelsen %B BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health %V 2 %8 Oct-12-2020 %G eng %N 2 %R 10.1136/bmjnph-2019-000036 %0 Journal Article %J Social Science & Medicine %D 2019 %T Socio-economic patterning of expenditures on ‘out-of-home’ food and non-alcoholic beverages by product and place of purchase in Britain %A Laura Cornelsen %A Nicolas Berger %A Steven Cummins %A Richard D. Smith %B Social Science & Medicine %V 235 %8 Jan-08-2019 %G eng %R 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112361