Household purchase volumes of non-alcoholic beverages

Abstract

Aims: To: (i) describe consumption of sugary drinks, artificially sweetened drinks, and unsweetened beverages in high income countries with similar food supplies to New Zealand (NZ) and identify potential reported differences between population subgroups; (ii) estimate total annual household purchase volumes of non-alcoholic beverages overall, and according to beverage types, using 2015-2019 NZ Nielsen Homescan consumer panel data; and (iii) identify differences in household purchase volumes of these beverages between households with different household characteristics and the changes over time. Methods: A systematic literature review described consumption of beverages in recent years (since 2009) in countries with similar food supplies to NZ and differences in consumption according to sociodemographic characteristics. Annual household-level purchase volumes of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage were estimated using Nielsen Homescan consumer panel data (n ≅ 1,800 households) for the overall sample, and for household-featurespecific subgroups. Beverages purchased by the sample were classified using a two-level classification system. Simple one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the mean household annual purchase volumes between years and key subgroups, followed by posthoc Tukey`s HSD tests. Findings: Volumes of non-alcoholic RTDs purchased annually by households have remained relatively stable in NZ and high-income countries with similar food supplies. Sugary drink consumption decreased in some countries, but changes in NZ were transient with households’ annual average purchase volumes shifting from 78.21 L (2015) to 71.26 L in (2019). Increases in plain bottled water purchased by households were observed in both analyses of Nielsen Homescan data (+ 4.34 L from 2015 to 2019) and the literature review. Households’ income, structure and age of primary shopper contributed to statistically significant (α = 5%) differences in mean annual purchase volumes of non-alcoholic beverages, overall and across sugary and unsweetened beverage varieties. Additionally, income and age of primary shopper were associated with differences in annual artificially sweetened beverage purchase volumes. Conclusion: This study is the first to quantify purchases of sugary drinks, artificially sweetened drinks and unsweetened drinks in NZ. Disparities in exposure to sugary drinks indicate a continuing need to create equitable and sustainable changes in beverage purchasing behaviours by NZ households.