The use of private regulatory measures to create healthy food retail environments: a scoping review

Abstract

Objective: Different forms of public and private regulation have been used to improve the healthiness of food retail environments. The aim of this scoping review was to systematically examine the types of private regulatory measures used to create healthy food retail environments, the reporting of the processes of implementation, monitoring, review and enforcement, and the barriers to and enablers of these. Design: Scoping review using the Johanna Briggs Institute guidelines. Ovid Medline, Psych Info, Embase, Cinahl Plus, Business Source Complete, and Scopus databases were searched in October 2020 and again in September 2023 using terms for ‘food retail’, ‘regulation’ and ‘nutrition’. Regulatory measure type was described by Domain and Mechanism. Deductive thematic analysis was used to identify reported barriers and enablers to effective regulatory governance processes using a public health law framework. Setting: Food retail. Participants: Food retail settings using private regulatory measures to create healthier food retail environments. Results: 17694 articles were screened and 35 included for review from six countries, with all articles published since 2011. Articles reporting on 26 unique private regulatory measures cited a mix of voluntary (n=16), mandatory (n=6) measures, both (n=2), or did not disclose (n=2). Articles frequently reported on implementation (34/35), with less reporting on the other regulatory governance processes of monitoring (15/35), review (6/35) and enforcement (2/35). Conclusions: We recommend more attention be paid to reporting on the monitoring, review and enforcement processes used in private regulation to promote further progress in improving the healthiness of food retail environments.