Promoção de bebidas ultraprocessadas em encartes de supermercados

Abstract

To evaluate the promotion of Ultraprocessed Beverages (UPB) in circulars of five large supermarket chains in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study that analyzed circulars from five large supermarket chains in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, during 12 months (May 2019 to June 2020). The UPB were grouped into four categories (soft drinks, juices and other non-carbonated drinks, dairy drinks, isotonic energy drinks) and according to scope (national/international and local) and socioeconomic profile of the target audience (middle/low and upper class) of the chains. In addition, UPB Marketing Strategies (ME) were evaluated in a subsample of 10% of circulars. ME were categorized into “premium offers”, “graphic highlights”, “brand benefits”, “use of images, themes and layouts that make reference to festive dates/seasons”, “nutrition claims” and “presence of characters/celebrities” according to the INFORMAS Protocol and narrative review of the World Health Organization. Statistical analysis performed in the Stata 12.0 program, using the Chi-square test for categorical variables, the Mann-Whitney test for dichotomous numerical variables and the Kruskal Wallis test for polytomic numerical variables. A significance level of 5% was considered. Results: 621 circulars containing 68,110 foods were analyzed, of which 10.1% were UPB. The most promoted UPB were dairy drinks (33.1%) and juices and other non-carbonated drinks (31.9%), followed by soft drinks (27.5%) and energy drinks/isotonics (7.5%). In general, no differences were found in the promotion of BUP between networks aimed at the medium/low and high socioeconomic public (p=0.419), as well as between national and local networks (p=0.726). On the other hand, there were differences in the promotion of UPB categories (p<0.01) between different supermarket chain profiles. Chains aimed at the middle/lower class promoted more dairy drinks (33.3%) and those aimed at the upper class promoted more juices and other non-carbonated drinks (34.5%). National/international chains promoted more dairy drinks (33.4%), compared to local chains that also promoted dairy drinks (32.9%) and juices and other non-carbonated drinks (32.9%). Of the subsample of 65 inserts (9,277 foods) that had MS evaluated, 11.3% were UPB, and 79.9% contained one or more associated MS. The most used ME were “premium offers” (53.2%), followed by “graphic highlights” (32.8%), “brand benefits” (22.4%), “use of images, themes or layouts that make reference to festive dates and/or seasons” (19.5%), “nutritional claims” (14.9%) and “presence of characters and/or celebrities” (2.4%). The UPB had a greater number of associated strategies (median 2.0; IIQ=1.0-3.0), in relation to the other foods in the database (median 1.0; IIQ=1.0-3.0) (p<0.01). Conclusion: UPB were widely promoted through various EM in supermarket circulars. Therefore, it is important to implement policies and programs that regulate the advertising of unhealthy foods in Brazil, which may contribute to discourage the consumption of UPB.