Food Pantries Select Healthier Foods After Nutrition Information is Available on their Food Bank’s Ordering Platform

This research analysed data following an intervention of a traffic light symbol placed on foods ordered online at a food bank in the US providing food to people with food insecurity.

The findings from this natural experiment found that individuals who order food for pantries are influenced by visible nutrition ranking information with significantly increased orders for green foods accompanied by a significant decrease in orders for red foods. For example, a large increase in orders for fresh produce occurred while new orders of brown rice replaced previous orders of white rice.

In addition, this paper sights the, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Eating Research Program nutrition guidelines developed in 2020 and specifically designed for use in food banks.