The South Africa case: low-priced vegetables and an improved diet
Published on 2/4/2013
According to the results of a study conducted by the renowned Rand Corporation in South Africa starting in 2009, increasing discounts by 25% on the prices of certain "health" foods chosen from a basket of products selected by nutritionists and doctors ensures an increase in the average consumption of these products and thus an undeniable improvement in a population's diet.
The South African experiment involved 800 food retailers and a total of over 170,000 households as consumers.
The study was based on discounts promoted by the country's leading personal insurance company, in the order of 10% and 25%, only on products that could be considered healthy according to medical-scientific judgement.
The survey confirmed once again that the logic of economic incentives is a fundamental lever in consumption dynamics: a 25% price reduction was in fact found to correspond to an average increase in the consumption of "healthy foods" (those included in the discount basket) of 9.3%, but the most positive effect is that the virtuous eating behaviour proved to last over time.