A Point-of-Purchase Messaging Program Increases Sales of Identified Healthy Items in a University Food Court

The obesity epidemic in the United States is effecting the college population. College populations across the country are served by contract foodservice companies that are looking for strategiesto promote the purchasing of healthy menu items. To determine if sales of identified healthy items increased in a University food court, in this study, the Point-of-Purchase(POP) messaging technique was implemented. The sales data for 2 low-calorie,low-fat menu items was collected for 11-weeks. The 11-week time period was subdivided into a 6-week baseline phase, 4-week intervention phase, and 1-week follow-up phase. During the intervention 4-POP interventions were implemented to represent each week of the intervention phase. Two statistical differences were located using a t-test. Throughout both the intervention phase (P=0.001) and follow-up phase (P=0.05) significantly more sandwiches were sold that during the baseline phase