(P08-014-24) Urban Retail Food Environment; Assessment of the Healthiness of Nigerian Supermarkets

Objectives: There is growing evidence that the evolving African food environment is influencing diets and contributing to the rising prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases. This study aimed to examine in-store healthy food availability, prominence and promotion in Nigeria.

Methods: We conducted a store audit of 28 supermarkets randomly selected from 15 Nigerian cities. Food availability and prominence are expressed by the proportion of healthy vs unhealthy food categories at different in-store locations. These and food promotions (presence of promotional characters and premium offers) were evaluated using INFORMAS food retail protocol.

Results: Findings revealed that healthy food (42.5%) constituted a good percentage of all food products assessed in the supermarket in-store locations. However, ultra-processed foods were found to be higher in prominent locations as only about one-quarter of the audited endcaps (29.5%) and checkout edge (23.3%) were junk-free. The top found in locations of high prominence (end cap A and checkouts) were unhealthy forms of drinks, snacks, chocolates/candy, breads and pastries.  Unhealthy foods in prominent locations were significantly lower in grocery (food-only) stores than in multi-purpose supermarkets (p = 0.002). Less than half (45.8%) of the promotional flyers employed persuasive techniques through the display of premium offers and promotional characters.

Conclusions: The disparity in the placement of unhealthy foods at prominent in-store locations when compared with healthy products call for increased public health interventions to improve the healthiness of consumer retail food environments.

Funding Sources: This study was conducted by the food environment work group of the Nutrition Drive for Healthy Diet initiative.