From the point-of-purchase perspective: A qualitative study of the feasibility of interventions aimed at portion-size
Section snippets
Background
Overweight and obesity prevalence is drastically increasing worldwide [1]. Overweight is a major risk factor for chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes mellitus type 2. Overweight and obesity have a considerable impact on individual lives, in addition to having a significant societal and economic impact [2].
The obesogenic environment in which we live is making a considerable contribution to the population's weight gain [3]. One of the main factors underlying the current
Participants and recruitment procedure
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample consisting of 22 representatives of a diverse group of Dutch point-of-purchase settings. Eight participants represented a worksite cafeteria organization, five participants spoke on behalf of fast-food restaurants, four participants represented organizations that cater to consumers in transit (e.g. a motorway restaurant), two participants represented cinema catering corporations, two participants represented the Dutch trade
Corporate responsibility for healthy consumption patterns
Many participants acknowledged that point-of-purchase settings have a responsibility in promoting healthy nutrition, which was also described in terms of responsible entrepreneurship. Participants saw their companies’ role as proactive and facilitating (mainly by providing healthy food options and information) in order to make the healthy choice the easy choice.
Portion-size policy
Most participants stated that their companies did not have a clear policy with respect to portion-sizes. In cases where they did have a
Discussion
To summarize the results, it appeared that obesity awareness was widely prevalent among the participants. The respondents also indicated that, from the perspective of responsible entrepreneurship, their companies were willing to play an active role in combating this societal problem. Of course, this willingness was subject to the condition that any such intervention would not harm commercial interests. Furthermore, in spite of the companies’ involvement with obesity, controlling portion-sizes
Conclusions
Our study shows that most interventions aimed at portion-size can be considered innovative for the majority of the companies represented. Nonetheless, participants expressed favourable attitudes towards offering a larger variety of portion-sizes and portion-size labelling. Further, worksite cafeteria organizations seemed open to pricing strategies with respect to portion-sizes. As both portion-size labelling and pricing strategies related to portion-size have yet to be implemented, both
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the 22 point-of-purchase representatives that participated in our study. Further, we would like to thank the members of the project advisory committee that is allied to this research project. This study was funded by ZonMW (project number: 6130.0033).
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Adding more portion-size options to a menu: A means to nudge consumers to choose larger portions of healthy food items
2022, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :Although we do not expect these differences to alter our key finding, future research can examine how food specific factors (e.g., familiarity, typicality) may moderate the extent of the impact of adding an XL option on consumers’ portion-size choices. In this research we focused on the issue of over-consumption at the moment of “choosing” a portion-size rather than at the moment of consumption, as past research suggests that over-consumption partly results from choosing larger portions in the first place and consumers tend to eat most of what is put in front of them (e.g., Vermeer et al., 2009; Wansink, 2004). Future research may extend our research to the consumption stage and validate the findings of earlier research.
Will reduced portion size compromise restaurant customer's value perception?
2018, International Journal of Hospitality ManagementCitation Excerpt :On the other hand, food cost only accounts for about 30 percent of the total expenses for many commercial foodservice operations (National Restaurant Association, 2010); therefore, food of larger portion size is likely to have a lower per-unit price that offers more value for money to the consumers, which has been considered an important factor directing consumers’ decisions towards purchasing large portions (Dobson and Gerstner, 2010; Vermeer et al., 2010). Even though reducing excessive food portions in restaurants may potentially help encourage eating in moderation and minimize the financial and health-care costs associated with food overconsumption, reducing food portion sizes is considered risky and disadvantageous by foodservice operators concerned about consumers’ perceptions of the value of the food (Vermeer et al., 2009). For restaurant operators to adopt any changes that involve potential risk, it would be important to understand how these changes may affect consumer’s value perceptions.
Curbing portion size effects by adding smaller portions at the point of purchase
2018, Food Quality and PreferenceCitation Excerpt :Second, small portion size buyers do not appear to compensate for the smaller amount of sausage they obtain by buying more of other meat products, relative to the medium or large portion buyers. For retailers, interventions aimed at curbing portion size effects may decrease profits, which could leave them reluctant to participate in such initiatives, even if views of downsizing portions tend to be mostly positive (Vermeer, Steenhuis, & Seidell, 2009). However, we find strong demand for smaller portions; slightly more than half of the units sold in this experiment were smaller portions.
Increasing the size of portion options affects intake but not portion selection at a meal
2016, AppetiteCitation Excerpt :It was found that the influence of portion size on intake was not affected by whether the amount of food on the plate was determined by the subject or the researcher; for both groups, increases in the amount of available food led to increased intake. It is possible that allowing subjects to choose the size of their meal from several pre-plated options, presented at the same time, would moderate intake when portion sizes are increased (Vermeer, Steenhuis, & Seidell, 2009; Vermeer, Steenhuis & Seidell, 2010). In most previous studies, only one portion size of each food was offered at a meal.
Food Environment Interventions to Improve the Dietary Behavior of Young Adults in Tertiary Education Settings: A Systematic Literature Review
2015, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsCitation Excerpt :Modifications of a canteen lunch could be instrumental to enhance the nutritional quality of lunch as well as the overall quality of the diet of the customers, a conclusion also reached by Lachat and colleagues.28 The effect of increasing the availability of, and access to, healthy food items on purchase behavior is less well studied, but available evidence shows that increased ease of access to an unhealthy option results in unhealthy choices in adults.45,46 Studies examining mediators of dietary behavior changes in other domains (eg, weight management) encourage combinations of education47 along with increased availability32 of healthy foods for healthy eating to maximize dietary intake outcomes.