Abstract
Objectives To explore the feasibility of working with a
wholesale supplier to co-design and deliver, and to assess
the acceptability of, an intervention to promote smaller
portions in Fish & Chip shops.
Design Uncontrolled before-and-after study.
Setting Fish & Chip shops in northern England, 2016.
Participants Owners (n=11), a manager and customers
(n=46) of Fish & Chip shops; and intervention deliverers
(n=3).
Intervention Supplier-led, three-hour engagement
event with shop owners and managers, highlighting the
problem of excessive portion sizes and potential ways
to reduce portion sizes; provision of box packaging to
serve smaller portions; promotional posters and business
incentives.
Data collection In-store observations and sales data
collected at baseline and postintervention. Exit survey
with customers. Semistructured interviews with owners/
managers and intervention deliverers postintervention.
Results Twelve Fish & Chip shops were recruited.
Observational data were collected from eight shops: at
baseline, six shops did not promote the availability of
smaller portion meals; at follow-up, all eight did and five
displayed the promotional poster. Seven out of 12 shops
provided sales data and all reported increased sales of
smaller portion meals postintervention. Of 46 customers
surveyed: 28% were unaware of the availability of smaller
portion meals; 20% had bought smaller portion meals;
and 46% of those who had not bought these meals were
interested to try them in the future. Interviews revealed:
owners/managers found the intervention acceptable but
wanted a clearer definition of a smaller portion meal;
the supplier valued the experience of intervention coproduction
and saw the intervention as being compatible
with their responsibility to drive innovation.
Conclusions The co-design of the intervention with
a supplier was feasible. The partnership facilitated the
delivery of an intervention that was acceptable to owners
and customers. Sales of smaller meal packaging suggest
that promotion of such meals is viable and may be
sustainable.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e023441 |
| Pages (from-to) | e023441 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | BMJ Open |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 7 Feb 2019 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Feb 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Funding This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR). This research was part of the SPHR-funded project: Transforming the 'foodscape': development and feasibility testing of interventions to promote healthier takeaway, pub or restaurant food, with additional support from Durham and Newcastle Universities, SPHR is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). At the time of funding, SPHR was a partnership between the Universities of Sheffield, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, University College London; The London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; the LiLaC collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster; and Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, a collaboration between Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities. Authors LG, FHB, NH, VAS, LP, CDS, AAL and AJA are members of Fuse. Funding for Fuse comes from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, and is gratefully acknowledged. AA is funded by the NIHR as a NIHR Research Professor. JA and MWh are funded by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research and the Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC.