Healthy food subsidies

A varied diet based on fruit, vegetables, wholegrain, low-fat dairy products, fish and vegetable oil lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes and certain forms of cancer. An important question is if it is possible to increase the consumption of these groceries through subsidies on healthy food like fruit, vegetables and fish.

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SBU Enquiry Service

Responds to queries received from Swedish healthcare and social service providers, or governmental organisations. Queries have a limited scope and the process is designed to enable a more rapid response, typically within two to three months. Reports are based on systematic reviews, that are identified through structured searches and critically appraised for risk of bias.

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Published: Report no: ut201832 Registration no: SBU 2018/513

Question

Do subsidies of fruit, vegetables and fish have an effect on how much people consume these groceries?

Identified studies

  1. Afshin A, Penalvo JL, Del Gobbo L, Silva J, Michaelson M, O'Flaherty M, et al. The prospective impact of food pricing on improving dietary consumption: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2017;12:e0172277.
  2. Niebylski ML, Redburn KA, Duhaney T, Campbell NR. Healthy food subsidies and unhealthy food taxation: A systematic review of the evidence. Nutrition 2015;31:787-95.
  3. Thow AM, Downs S, Jan S. A systematic review of the effectiveness of food taxes and subsidies to improve diets: understanding the recent evidence. Nutr Rev 2014;72:551-65.

Literature search

Literature search.pdf

Project group

Miriam Entesarian Matsson, Laura Lintamo and Emin Hoxha Ekström at SBU.

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