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. 2017 Feb;18(2):227-246.
doi: 10.1111/obr.12479. Epub 2016 Nov 29.

The impact of interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets open to the general public: a systematic review

F C Hillier-Brown  1   2 , C D Summerbell  1   2 , H J Moore  1   2 , A Routen  3 , A A Lake  2   4 , J Adams  5 , M White  5   6 , V Araujo-Soares  2   6 , C Abraham  7 , A J Adamson  2   6   8 , T J Brown  1   2
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The impact of interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets open to the general public: a systematic review

F C Hillier-Brown et al. Obes Rev. 2017 Feb.

Abstract

Introduction: Ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets that are accessible to the general public are an important target for public health intervention. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of such interventions.

Methods: Studies of any design and duration that included any consumer-level or food-outlet-level before-and-after data were included.

Results: Thirty studies describing 34 interventions were categorized by type and coded against the Nuffield intervention ladder: restrict choice = trans fat law (n = 1), changing pre-packed children's meal content (n = 1) and food outlet award schemes (n = 2); guide choice = price increases for unhealthier choices (n = 1), incentive (contingent reward) (n = 1) and price decreases for healthier choices (n = 2); enable choice = signposting (highlighting healthier/unhealthier options) (n = 10) and telemarketing (offering support for the provision of healthier options to businesses via telephone) (n = 2); and provide information = calorie labelling law (n = 12), voluntary nutrient labelling (n = 1) and personalized receipts (n = 1). Most interventions were aimed at adults in US fast food chains and assessed customer-level outcomes. More 'intrusive' interventions that restricted or guided choice generally showed a positive impact on food-outlet-level and customer-level outcomes. However, interventions that simply provided information or enabled choice had a negligible impact.

Conclusion: Interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals sold by food outlets should restrict choice or guide choice through incentives/disincentives. Public health policies and practice that simply involve providing information are unlikely to be effective.

Keywords: Diet; food environments; ready-to-eat meals; restaurants; systematic review; takeaways.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses flowchart
Figure 2
Figure 2
Intervention impact summary by Nuffield intervention ladder category and number of intervention functions for customer‐level outcomes (A) and outlet level outcomes (B)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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