Out Of Home, let’s grab a healthier lunch!

A New Academic-Industry partnership initiating collaborative research into Consumer perceptions of Real-Life Retailer Health Initiatives in the UK Out of Home (OOH) Food Sector.

Every week in the UK, 60% of people purchase foods from Out of Home (OOH) outlets including cafes, restaurants and takeaways and these influence public health via population diets, which are higher in saturated fat, sugars and salt than recommended by dietary guidelines.

OOH food is defined as “Ready to eat food which is typically consumed on the same day as it’s purchased”.

Across the OOH food retail sector, efforts to improve public health include supporting customers to choose healthier foods with health initiatives such as calorie labelling, new products, marketing or menu nudges.

Unfortunately, there exists a very limited understanding of UK consumers’ engagement with and expectations of health initiatives in OOH food settings.  Our research project will examine consumer perceptions through a new academic–industry partnership by:

• conducting a new insights review;
• surveying a nationally representative sample; and
• interviewing diverse groups of UK consumers, including those living in deprived areas and young adults.

 

We are grateful for support from the Consumer Lab funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Innovate UK and the Medical Research Council (MRC) grant reference BB/X010805/1.

Impact

With the gathered data, we will generate new evidence and research tools on this topic and ensure impact by using our findings to create a new toolkit of recommendations for OOH retailer health initiatives.

The industry Partner Greggs PLC is the UK’s largest OOH Food to go operator, serving 1 million customers a day both online and across 2600 outlets nationwide.