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Food and health

Price and sales volume of sugar-sweetened beverages, diet drinks, sweets and chocolates: analysis of Danish retail scanner data

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 74, pages 581–587 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objectives

The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationship between price and sales volume of non-alcoholic sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), diet drinks, sweets and chocolates, including own and cross price elasticity to further quantify the potential impact of price.

Methods

The study was based on retail scanner data for grocery sales from retail outlet chains in Denmark during the year 2008–2015. A fixed-effects model was used to estimate the association between price and sales volume, using own price and cross price elasticity.

Results

Sales volume of all sugary products except for chocolates were significantly negatively associated with price. Own price elasticity varied from −0.3 to −0.4 for drinks and sweets indicating that a 10% increase in price would cause a reduction in sales by 3 or 4%. A 10% increase in price of carbonated SSBs would increase sales of diet drinks by 7%. Cross price elasticities for other products were not significant.

Conclusions

The results of the present study demonstrated significant negative associations between changes in price and changes in the sale of SSBs, diet drinks and sweets.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Helsefonden.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Clinical Research and Prevention, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, Nordre Fasanvej 57, 2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Tine Buch-Andersen, Anne Helms Andreasen, Torben Jørgensen & Ulla Toft

  2. Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1014, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Torben Jørgensen

  3. Faculty of Medicine, Aalborg University, Niels Jernes Vej 10, 9220, Aalborg Ø, Denmark

    Torben Jørgensen

  4. Danish Center for Healthcare Improvements, Department of Business and Management, Aalborg University, Fibigerstræde 11, 9220, Aalborg Ø, Denmark

    Lars Holger Ehlers

Authors
  1. Tine Buch-Andersen
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  4. Lars Holger Ehlers
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  5. Ulla Toft
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Contributions

TB-A contributed to the conceptualization and design of the study, statistical analyses, interpretation of results, drafting and revision of the manuscript. AHA contributed to the design of the study, statistical analyses, interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. TJ contributed to the conceptualization and design of the study, interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. LHE contributed to the design of the study, interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. UT contributed to the conceptualization and design of the study, interpretation of results and revision of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tine Buch-Andersen.

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Supplementary information

41430_2019_470_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplementary Table 1. Own price elasticities of sugary products calculated by the two statistical models; general linear model (GLM) and seemingly unrelated regression (SUR)

Supplementary Table 2. Cross model covariance and correlation matrix from seemingly unrelated regression (SUR)

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Buch-Andersen, T., Helms Andreasen, A., Jørgensen, T. et al. Price and sales volume of sugar-sweetened beverages, diet drinks, sweets and chocolates: analysis of Danish retail scanner data. Eur J Clin Nutr 74, 581–587 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0470-5

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