Voluntary industry initiatives to promote healthy diets: a case study on a major European food retailer.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the scope and content of the nutrition pledge announced by Lidl. DESIGN: We applied the approach recommended by the private-sector module of the INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity Research, Monitoring and Action Support) food environment monitoring framework and qualitative content analysis to Lidl's nutrition pledge. SETTING: Global. SUBJECTS: The nutrition pledge of Lidl, Europe's largest food retailer. RESULTS: Lidl pledges to reduce the average sales-weighted content of added sugar and added salt in its own-brand products by 20 % until 2025, using 2015 as a baseline, starting in Germany. Moreover, it vows to reduce the saturated and trans-fatty acid contents of its own-brand products, without specifying targets or timelines. To achieve these targets, it pledges to apply a number of approaches, including reformulation, promotion of healthier products, reduction of package and portion sizes, and provision of nutrition information and education. Strengths of Lidl's pledge are its extensive scope, the quantification of some targets, and its partially evidence-based approach to the selection of targets and interventions. Key limitations include the vagueness of many targets, a lack of transparency and the absence of independent monitoring and evaluation. CONCLUSIONS: Lidl's pledge, while commendable for its scope, does not meet current best practice guidelines. Given their current limitations, industry initiatives of this kind are likely to fall short of what is needed to improve population-level nutrition.

Using financial incentives to increase physical activity among employees as a strategy of workplace health promotion: protocol for a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Shifts towards sedentary occupations in high-income countries (HIC) over the last decades and the health burden associated with physical inactivity have led to innovative strategies to promote physical activity (PA) among the working population. Financial rewards have been proposed to incentivise participation in programmes promoting PA or the achievement of PA-related goals. This review will assess (1) effects of financial incentives provided by employers to promote PA on programme adherence/compliance, PA and closely linked outcomes (eg, days of sick leave), (2) effects according to age, gender, implementation and study quality and (3) intervention costs and cost-effectiveness. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will search for relevant studies in eight academic databases, two grey literature resources, two trial registers and on five organisational websites (oldest record/content to present). We will include (cluster) randomised controlled studies with a financial incentive to promote PA as intervention (≥1 months), conducted among employees in HIC and reporting data on at least one primary outcome in stages of screening (title/abstract, full text). To assess study quality and potential bias, we will use the revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool (RoB 2). We will extract study data into prepiloted extraction sheets. Each task in screening, quality assessment and data extraction will be done by two authors independently. If a sufficient number of studies provide homogeneous data (ie, similar follow-up) for primary outcomes, meta-analyses will be carried out. We will report GRADE ratings to provide information on the certainty of the evidence. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: For this review, no ethical approval will be required because only data of studies in which informed consent was obtained will be considered and analysed. The final review manuscript will be published in an Open Access journal. To ensure effective promotion of this review project, we will disseminate major findings through relevant communication channels. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42020184345.