Digital Sources of Food Purchasing Data for the Surveillance of Dietary Patterns

Introduction In Canada, the economic impact of unhealthy eating is estimated at $6.3 billion annually and in the US the estimated cost is $87 billion. Despite the critical need to identify effective diet-related interventions through empirical evaluation, public health practitioners and researchers lack timely access to representative data sources collected at a fine spatial and temporal resolution. Food surveys, for example, are costly, infrequent, delayed, and subject to biases [1]. The Nielsen Corporation collects data on food purchasing directly from scanners in grocery and convenience stores around the world. These data hold great potential for public health practice. We were interested in using these data to analyze purchases of regular (sugary) soda and water, before and after two interventions aimed at reducing sugary drink consumption. The first intervention, ‘Gobes-tu ça’, was a counter-advertising campaign targeting the age group with the highest consumption of soda, 12-17 year olds [2]. The second intervention, ‘Sois-futé, bois santé’, targeted elementary school students. Both began in the Fall of 2011 and ramped up over time.