Can Health Information and Price Incentives Promote Whole-Grain Choices? A Real Purchase Experiment in China

Promoting whole-grain consumption is crucial for fostering healthier diets and achieving sustainable food systems. However, whole grain consumption remains low in China, highlighting the necessity for effective governmental policy interventions. This study investigated the effects of information intervention and price subsidy on promoting whole-grain bread choices among Chinese consumers, using a controlled quasi-experiment in a real supermarket in urban Beijing. Three conditions—information intervention, price subsidy intervention, and control—were implemented in separate time slots over the course of eight days. The information intervention featured health messages from the 2022 Chinese dietary guidelines on whole grains, displayed next to whole-grain bread products. The price subsidy intervention provided a post-purchase cash rebate, reducing the price of high whole-grain content bread products to the lowest-priced bread of all bread products. A total of 364 participants’ choice records from shopping receipts were collected, consisting of 132 in the control group, 126 in the information intervention group, and 106 in the price intervention group. Compared to those in the control group, participants in the price subsidy intervention group have significantly increased choices of high whole-grain content bread (OR= 4.67, 95% CI 2.61-8.38), whereas the information intervention showed no significant effect on whole-grain bread choices (OR=0.95, 95% CI 0.58-1.56). The effects remained robust after adjusting for individual socio-demographic characteristics. Future policies to promote whole-grain consumption in China should go beyond only providing generic health information from dietary guidelines but incorporate fiscal measures such as price subsidies.