Berkeley grocery shoppers are buying less soda and small-package candy after a 2021 citywide ordinance prohibiting the display of unhealthy foods at checkout counters, according to a recent study from Boston University and UC Davis.<\/p>\n
Berkeley\u2019s Healthy Checkout ordinance, which is the first of its kind globally, restricts sugary drinks and high-sugar foods from being displayed near checkout areas in major retailers. Stores are still permitted to sell these items elsewhere in the establishment.<\/p>\n
The ordinance aims to reduce sugar and sodium consumption, which is \u201ca major driver of obesity,\u201d according to Susana Matias, a public health nutrition researcher at UC Berkeley.<\/p>\n
After analyzing 71 chain store locations in Berkeley, the study found a nearly 40% fall in soda sales compared to trends in other cities.<\/p>\n
\u201cCheckout is \u2026 uniquely influential over impulse purchases. Big ultra-processed food and beverage companies pay large marketing fees to stores to place their products at checkout to boost sales,\u201d said Jennifer Falbe, a nutrition and human development professor at UC Davis, who co-authored the study, in an email. \u201cThis law only regulates the checkout lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although the law limits small-package sodas sold in checkout lines, sales of large packages of soda accounted for much of the reported decline. Researchers found limited changes for small packages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe policy appears to have changed some purchasing patterns, but not uniformly across products or store types,\u201d said Justin White, associate professor at Boston University School of Public Health and lead author of the study, in an email. \u201cThat gives policymakers a more realistic picture of both the potential and limits of checkout policies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though overall candy sales increased after the law\u2019s implementation, the study found a 43% decline in small-package candy sales after enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m incredibly proud to have authored Berkeley\u2019s Healthy Checkout legislation,\u201d said former Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn, who co-authored the ordinance. \u201cThis is exactly the outcome advocates and I predicted when the legislation was put forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Similar policies such as Berkeley\u2019s 2014 penny-per-ounce levy on sweetened beverages also showed a decrease in soda consumption.<\/p>\n
White highlighted the importance of cities making rules easy for stores to understand and implement to help manage and enforce compliance. He noted that other parts of stores \u2014 such as the endcaps, store entrances and seasonal displays \u2014 may also matter for prompting healthy choices.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The policy) impacts the chronic disease people will ultimately have, diabetes in the Black community being one of the most paramount,\u201d said Wilhelmenia Wilson, the executive director of Healthy Black Families, a Berkeley-based health nonprofit. \u201cI think it\u2019s an excellent preventative mechanism that can be implemented in a very practical way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Berkeley grocery shoppers are buying less soda and small-package candy after a 2021 citywide ordinance prohibiting the display…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[764,7981,11088,188119,188122,188118,124368,143,145,144,188120,188117,149,8229,188121],"class_list":["post-479579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-berkeley","tag-berkeley-city-council","tag-boston-university","tag-boston-university-school-of-public-health","tag-healthy-black-families-inc","tag-jennifer-falbe","tag-justin-white","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-sophie-hahn","tag-susana-matias","tag-uc-berkeley","tag-uc-davis","tag-wilhelmenia-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}