Supermarket sales data: feasibility and applicability in population food and nutrition monitoring

Population food and nutrition monitoring plays a critical role in understanding suboptimal nutrition at the population level, yet current monitoring methods such as national surveys are not practical to undertake on a continuous basis. Supermarket sales data potentially address this gap by providing detailed, timely, and inexpensive monitoring data for informing policies and anticipating trends. This paper reviews 22 studies that used supermarket sales data to examine food purchasing patterns. Despite some methodological limitations, feasibility studies showed promising results. The potential and limitations of using supermarket sales data to supplement food and nutrition monitoring methods are discussed.