Evaluating real-world interventions with major UK retailers
Since 2021, the Nutrition and Lifestyle Analytics team at the University of Leeds, led by Professor Michelle Morris, has collaborated with IGD to evaluate real-world interventions delivered by major UK retailers. The aim is to understand which approaches help shift consumer behaviour towards healther and more sustainable foods.
To support this work, the team developed a framework of Healthy and Sustainable Diet metrics. These metrics are used to evaluate how these real-world retail-based behavioural interventions influence purchasing patterns and to measure shifts in consumer behaviours towards the UK government’s Eatwell Guide.
Our Evaluation Framework
Our analysis focuses on how five key behavioural levers influence purchasing patterns. These behavioural levers include:
- Signposting
- Placement
- Product
- Influence
- Incentivisation
The Eatwell guide gives dietary proportion recommendations by weight. We use retailer consumer transaction data to categorise purchases into the Eatwell food groups. By doing this, we can compare purchase data to the official government recommendations pre-, during and post-intervention. This approach allows us to assess how closely customer purchases align with national dietary recommendations and compare results across interventions to identify which behavioural levers are effective at supporting healthier and more sustainable choices.
Learn more
Use the links below to read more about our evaluation framework and intervention principles:
