What drives the purchasing of foods with high sugar? Evidence from Turkey
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 3 June 2019
Issue publication date: 3 June 2019
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the share of expenditure on foods with high sugar is influenced by purchasing behaviour and household characteristics in Turkey.
Design/methodology/approach
Food purchases of a large representative sample of Turkish households (n=10,682) were observed over a two-year time span. A linear mixed effects model is estimated to analyse the drivers of households’ share of expenditure on foods with high sugar in a longitudinal setting.
Findings
Lower shopping frequency, larger shopping baskets, more promotional purchasing and higher usage of modern retail formats lead to a higher share of expenditure on foods with high sugar. This share decreases with higher income and education. Households living in urban areas have lower expenditure on foods with high sugar. Households in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions show the highest share of expenditure on foods with high sugar across Turkey. Children within the household lead to a higher share of expenditure on foods with high sugar whereas this share decreases with increasing household size and being in later stages of life.
Originality/value
Analysing household panel data provides a more realistic perspective of longitudinal food purchasing behaviour compared to studies using cross-sectional designs. Furthermore, this large-scale study in Turkey provides valuable insights for health researchers and policymakers to improve public health due to being conducted in a newly industrialised country with high rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes, a fragmented retail environment and diverse geographical regions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The first author gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) under 2214-A International Research Fellowship Programme for PhD students. The content of this paper reflects only the views of the authors; TUBITAK is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained in this paper. All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Citation
Sürmeli, G., Elshiewy, O. and Ülengin, B. (2019), "What drives the purchasing of foods with high sugar? Evidence from Turkey", British Food Journal, Vol. 121 No. 5, pp. 1020-1034. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2018-0409
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited