Table 4.

Supermarkets’ adherence to their own checkout food policies

Supermarket group	Store format	Policy category	Our interpretation of policy for determination of adherence	Checkout journeys with food inconsistent with policies, n (%)
1	Hypermarket	Clear and consistent	Only food that counts as 5-a-day, has no ‘red’ traffic light ratings, is in a pack of 50 g or less, or is deemed a ‘healthier’ snack by Department of Health	0
	Large supermarket	Clear and consistent	Only food that counts as 5-a-day, has no ‘red’ traffic light ratings, is in a pack of 50 g or less, or is deemed a ‘healthier’ snack by Department of Health	0
	Small supermarket	Clear and consistent	Only food that counts as 5-a-day, has no ‘red’ traffic light ratings, is in a pack of 50 g or less, or is deemed a ‘healthier’ snack by Department of Health	3 (5.1)
	Convenience store	Clear and consistent	Only food that counts as 5-a-day, has no ‘red’ traffic light ratings, is in a pack of 50 g or less, or is deemed a ‘healthier’ snack by Department of Health	0
2	Large supermarket	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery or chocolate confectionery food groups in main checkouts (staffed belt checkouts)	2 (2.4)
3	Large supermarket	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery, chocolate confectionery or soft drinks, carbonated/still food groups in 1/3 of checkouts	Metric not applicable given focus on 1/3 checkouts1
4	Large supermarket	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery or chocolate confectionery food groups in main checkouts (directly at the till)	Metric not applicable given difference in definition of checkout area2
5	Large supermarket	Clear and consistent	Only foods in the nuts & seeds, dried fruit, sugar-free confectionery, soft drinks, diet and bottled water food categories; as well as crispbread/flatbread, popcorn and rice snacks, savoury vegetable snacks, snack bars based on dried fruit & nuts, cereals or protein	0
7	Large supermarket	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery or chocolate confectionery food groups	14 (17.9)
	Convenience store	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery or chocolate confectionery food groups	3 (11.5)
8	Large supermarket	Clear and consistent	Only foods in the nuts & seeds, dried fruit, sugar-free confectionery, soft drinks, diet and bottled water food categories; as well as crispbread/flatbread, popcorn and rice snacks, savoury vegetable snacks, snack bars based on dried fruit & nuts, cereals or protein	0
9	Convenience store	Vague or inconsistent	No foods in the sugary confectionery, chocolate confectionery, crisps & savoury snacks, biscuits or buns, cakes, pastries & fruit pies food groups (franchise stores excluded)	6 (60.0)

¹Two out of the five included stores had no checkout foods; the other three had 78.4, 84.0 and 100% of checkout journeys with food inconsistent with policies hence these three stores were non adherent with the policy to have 1/3 of checkouts ‘guilt free’

²Using our definition of checkout area, 95 (79.2%) of checkouts contained food inconsistent with policy