Proposed strategies for South African supermarkets to increase healthier food choices: A literature review

Abstract

Consumers often buy their food from supermarkets, which now provide and promote a vast range of both healthy and unhealthy foods. Choosing more processed energy-dense foods may contribute to non-communicable diseases. Until recently, supermarkets have not received enough attention on how they influence consumers to make healthier food choices. The aim of this paper is to discuss the value of using interventions in supermarkets, supermarket’s role towards consumers to make healthier food choices and to suggest strategies to South African supermarkets to increase healthier food choices to help address the non-communicable diseases epidemic which may act as a reference for supermarkets when revising their internal environment. This paper reports a review of literature. Four databases were searched. The searches identified 78 articles. Duplicate articles and articles not meeting the inclusion criteria were removed. A total of 45 articles were identified. The retrieved literature was scanned for relevance, organized and then classified into specific constructs: South African food retail, interventions in supermarkets, supermarket’s role in changing consumer’s choice and proposed strategies to increase healthier food choices. Research on the process underlying the implementation of long-term and sustainable interventions to increase healthier food choices in supermarkets is currently lacking. Food retailers need to acknowledge their role in the current health status of their customers and communicate anti-disease activities. In this article four important strategies that could help address the non-communicable diseases epidemic, are suggested which may act as a reference model for supermarkets when revising their store environment.