BACKGROUND Reducing meat consumption could bring health and environmental benefits, but there is little research to date on effective interventions to achieve this. A non-randomised controlled intervention study was used to evaluate whether prominent positioning of meat-free products in the meat aisle was associated with a change in weekly mean sales of meat and meat-free products. METHODS AND FINDINGS Weekly sales data were obtained from 108 stores: 20 intervention stores that moved a selection of 26 meat-free products into a newly created meat-free bay within the meat aisle and 88 matched control stores. The primary outcome analysis used a hierarchical negative binomial model to compare changes in weekly sales (units) of meat products sold in intervention versus control stores during the main intervention period (Phase I: February 2019 to April 2019). Interrupted time series analysis was also used to evaluate the effects of the Phase I intervention. Moreover, 8 of the 20 stores enhanced the intervention from August 2019 onwards (Phase II intervention) by adding a second bay of meat-free products into the meat aisle, which was evaluated following the same analytical methods. During the Phase I intervention, sales of meat products (units/store/week) decreased in intervention (approximately -6%) and control stores (-5%) without significant differences (incidence rate ratio [IRR] 1.01 [95% CI 0.95-1.07]. Sales of meat-free products increased significantly more in the intervention (+31%) compared to the control stores (+6%; IRR 1.43 [95% CI 1.30-1.57]), mostly due to increased sales of meat-free burgers, mince, and sausages. Consistent results were observed in interrupted time series analyses where the effect of the Phase II intervention was significant in intervention versus control stores. CONCLUSIONS Prominent positioning of meat-free products into the meat aisle in a supermarket was not effective in reducing sales of meat products, but successfully increased sales of meat-free alternatives in the longer term. A preregistered protocol (https://osf.io/qmz3a/) was completed and fully available before data analysis.

中文翻译：

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估计将无肉产品移至肉类货架对肉类和无肉产品销售的影响：在英国一家大型连锁超市进行的一项非随机对照干预研究。

背景 减少肉类消费可以带来健康和环境效益，但迄今为止几乎没有关于实现这一目标的有效干预措施的研究。一项非随机对照干预研究用于评估无肉产品在肉类过道中的突出定位是否与肉类和无肉产品每周平均销售额的变化有关。方法和结果 从 108 家商店获得每周销售数据：20 家干预商店将 26 种无肉产品的选择转移到肉类通道内新创建的无肉隔间和 88 家匹配的控制商店。主要结果分析使用分层负二项式模型来比较主要干预期间（第一阶段：2019 年 2 月至 2019 年 4 月）。中断时间序列分析也用于评估第一阶段干预的效果。此外，从 2019 年 8 月起，20 家门店中有 8 家加强了干预（第二阶段干预），通过在肉类过道中添加第二个无肉产品，按照相同的分析方法对其进行评估。在第一阶段干预期间，干预（约 -6%）和对照商店（-5%）的肉类产品销售额（单位/商店/周）下降，没有显着差异（发生率比 [IRR] 1.01 [95% CI 0.95] -1.07]. 与对照商店 (+6%; IRR 1.43 [95% CI 1.30-1.57]) 相比，干预措施中无肉产品的销售额显着增加 (+31%)，主要是由于肉类销售额的增加- 免费汉堡、肉末和香肠。在中断的时间序列分析中观察到一致的结果，其中阶段 II 干预的效果在干预与对照存储中是显着的。结论 将无肉产品突出放置在超市的肉类货架上并不能有效减少肉产品的销售，但从长远来看，它成功地增加了无肉替代品的销售。在数据分析之前，预注册的协议 (https://osf.io/qmz3a/) 已完成并完全可用。