Research shows that 83% of the products in stores met the requirements a year later

Parents shopping with their children in Berkeley, California, can now breathe a sigh of relief when they arrive at the checkout line. Likewise, Berkeley shoppers looking for an impulse snack purchase now have healthy options at the checkout. That’s because in March 2021, Berkeley became the first city in the world to implement a healthy checkout policy, which sets nutritional standards for store checkouts.

Berkeley, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, was followed by Perris, a small city in Southern California, and by the United Kingdom.

Per Berkeley’s policy, only the following items can be placed at checkout: unsweetened beverages, healthy foods (e.g., fruits, nuts, whole grains) with up to 5 grams of added sugar and up to 200 milligrams of sodium, and items such as lip balm, magazines, and batteries .

According to research from the University of California, Davis, most products offered at checkout counters in stores (83%) were already compliant within a year of the policy taking effect. That’s a 63% improvement from before the policy.

When the researchers looked only at the food and drink options at checkout, the improvement was even more apparent. The percentage of healthy food and drinks at the checkout has more than doubled, from 29% to 62%.

The checkout is an especially important part of any store because it’s the one place all customers have to go through to leave the store, leading to impulse purchases, researchers said. These new standards apply to all food and beverage items in all cash registers at the city’s major food stores.

“We’re seeing a pretty dramatic improvement in the healthiness of foods and beverages at store checkouts in Berkeley,” said Jennifer Falbe, lead author of a paper. study on the Berkeley policy published in JAMA network opened.

“Before this policy, the majority – about 70% of food and beverage products at the checkout – were unhealthy, and now that has been cut in half,” said Falbe, associate professor of Nutrition and Human Development in UC’s Department of Nutrition and Human Development Davis. Human ecology. “Stores replaced sugary drinks, candies and other sweets with unsweetened drinks, healthy foods such as nuts, seeds and fruits and non-food items.”

Falbe studies the effects of food policy on human health and behavior. Falbe noted that retail chains typically stock candy and soda at the checkout because of marketing contracts in which large ultra-processed food and beverage companies pay stores for premium placement.

“Many of us view the supermarket as a neutral environment and don’t realize the ways in which our decisions can be influenced, including where products are placed.”

Falbe noted that many of these food and beverage companies also produce healthier product lines, such as sparkling water and nut bars, that can help with the transition.

Researchers observed checkout areas in Berkeley and three comparison cities without the ordinance, both a month before the policy was implemented and again a year later. In total, they recorded data on more than 76,000 products across 23 stores in Berkeley and 75 stores in comparison cities. More than 50,000 of those products were foods or beverages.

Although they found big improvements in the health of the checkouts in Berkeley, the points of sale in the comparison cities remained about the same over time.

The ordinance applies to all stores with more than 2,500 square feet of floor space and that sell at least 80 linear feet of food, such as supermarkets, big box stores, drugstores and large supermarkets, dollar and convenience stores. (Most convenience stores are too small to be covered by the law.)

A similar policy has since been implemented across the United Kingdom and in Perris, a city in Southern California, since the Berkeley ordinance went into effect.

“These improvements in the health of checkout counters in Berkeley stores occurred just one year after the policy went into effect and just one month after the policy became enforceable. With more time and technical assistance from the city, checkout lines in stores can improve even further improve,” said Falbe.