The Marketing of Ultraprocessed Foods in a National Sample of U.S. Supermarket Circulars: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to quantify the prevalence of advertisements for ultraprocessed foods and beverages in U.S. supermarket circulars, which are digital and print marketing materials with weekly sales promotions. Methods: Food and beverage advertisements on the first page of 4,181 weekly circulars from 453 stores across 6 states were analyzed from August 2019 to September 2019. Products were classified into 1 of 4 mutually exclusive categories on the basis of the extent and purposes of their industrial processing using a variant of the NOVA classification system adapted for the U.S. food supply: unprocessed and minimally processed, basic processed, moderately processed, and highly processed. Results: A total of 86,099 food and beverage advertisements were classified. Highly processed foods accounted for 45.7% of advertisements, followed by unprocessed/minimally processed foods at 41.2%, moderately processed foods at 8.0%, and basic processed foods at 5.1%. Conclusions: U.S. supermarket circulars advertise a high proportion of processed and highly processed foods and beverages.

Keywords

• Marketing
• food processing
• ultra-processed foods