Grocery store tour education programme promotes fruit and vegetable consumption

Abstract

To examine the effectiveness of the Produce for Better Health Foundation grocery store tour programme as a nutrition education tool for changing consumers' intention to consume various forms of fruits and vegetables (F&V).Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: Ten grocery stores in a city in the Southeast USA.Participants: A total of 147 grocery shoppers in Alabama, who participated in a grocery store tour, completed a retrospective pre-/post-survey using the Theory of Planned Behaviour.Results: Results from independent-samples t tests indicated that mean values of attitude, subjective norm and perceived control were significantly increased after store tours (P < 0·01). Participants' intentions to consume various types of F&V (fresh, dried, canned, juice and frozen), especially dried F&V, increased significantly after store tours. Results from structural equation modelling indicated that before store tours attitude (γ = 0·48, P < 0·01) was the most significant predictor of intention to consume F&V, followed by perceived behavioural control (γ = 0·24, P = 0·02) and subjective norm (γ = 0·21, P = 0·03). After store tours, attitude (γ = 0·51, P < 0·01) and perceived behavioural control (γ = 0·44, P < 0·01) were still strong predictors of intention to consume F&V, while subjective norm became an insignificant predictor of intention.Conclusions: Findings revealed positive changes in study participants' attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and their intentions to consume various forms of F&V, which suggest potential benefits of providing grocery store tours as a tool to promote consumers' F&V intake.