Food Subsidies to Promote Healthy Eating and Reduce Healthy Food Prices

This working paper presents the results of a rapid literature review of program evaluations of food subsidies to promote healthy eating that address sales/prices, consumption, and/or health outcomes. It presents policy relevant findings on food subsidies to promote healthy eating that have been implemented globally, summarizing their impact on sales/prices, food consumption, and health outcomes, as well as circumstantial factors under which food subsidies have greater impact. Thirty-five publications that described 20 different programs across eight different countries with heterogeneous methodological quality were included in this review. Most of the programs found were implemented in the United States targeting vulnerable population groups. They used varied policy instruments (e.g., vouchers to produce discounts, cash-back rebates, etc.) and ways of administration (e.g., loyalty cards, paper-based vouchers) to provide a variety of subsidies for healthy foods.Only two programs included reported a high impact on price reduction to the consumer (Shop N Save conducted in South Carolina, US) and food consumption (Healthy Incentives Pilot, conducted in Utah, US). Most of the programs included reported low impact, and seven of them reported a moderate impact on either price or food consumption. Finally, very limited evidence reports that there might be a low impact of these programs on health outcomes. The amount of the subsidy (higher amounts tend to produce higher impacts) and the fact that it was implemented complementing an established program rather than created in isolation might explain a higher impact of these programs, but the certainty of the evidence is not strong to support this conclusion