Changing the Default: what happens when healthier choices become easier choices?

Healthy products are widely available, yet healthier choices do not automatically become the preferred choices. Consumer habits, category conventions and commercial considerations often stand in the way of large-scale adoption. Through its Living Labs initiative Foodvalley works with industry partners to test whether small interventions in real retail environments can accelerate healthier purchasing behaviour.

One of these experiments, developed together with Koninklijke Remia and Bamboo Brands, explored a simple but powerful question: what happens when a healthier option gains more visibility at the cost of the unhealthier and is moved to the place where consumers naturally make their choice?

This Living Lab tested a simple change to the default choice by increasing the shelf visibility of the healthier product and reducing that of the less healthy variant, making the healthier option the most logical choice for consumers.

Why this matters

Across Europe, governments, retailers and manufacturers are searching for effective ways to improve dietary patterns. Much attention is given to product reformulation and innovation, but the shopping environment itself is equally important.

Research consistently shows that consumers make many purchasing decisions automatically. If healthier products remain less visible than standard alternatives, even improved products may struggle to reach scale.

This raises an important question for the food industry: could changing the default shift purchasing behaviour towards healthier choices?

Testing the hypothesis

To explore this question, Foodvalley and its partners launched a Living Lab in ten supermarkets.

The intervention focused on Remia Friteslijn, a low-fat and low-calorie alternative to traditional mayonnaise. Friteslijn contains just 99 kcal per 100 ml, compared with 600 to 750 kcal for mayonnaise products. Instead of being positioned in the fritessaus section, Friteslijn was relocated to the mayonnaise shelf, where most consumers naturally look for products in this category.

At the same time, the product received additional shelf facings, increasing its visibility during the shopping journey.

The pilot ran for ten weeks. Sales data were corrected for promotions and national category developments using Nielsen market data.

Outcomes and insights

The results suggest that shelf positioning can have a significant impact on purchasing behaviour.

Sales rotation of Friteslijn increased by 20.8%, while rotation of full-fat mayonnaise products declined, in some cases by as much as 10.8%. Importantly, the intervention did not simply shift volume within the Remia portfolio. The total Remia portfolio grew by 14.1%, indicating that healthier choices and commercial growth can go hand in hand.

The effect became even stronger in stores that provided additional shelf space. Stores with four facings for Friteslijn recorded substantially higher growth in rotation (30%) than stores with three facings (10.8%).

Beyond Remia: lessons for the food industry

While this pilot focused on a single product category, it provides several relevant lessons for the food industry:

• Placement matters: positioning the healthier option where consumers naturally make their category choice can increase its visibility and sales.
• More visibility can strengthen the effect: the strongest growth was seen in stores where Friteslijn received four facings rather than three.
• Health and commercial performance can go together: sales of Friteslijn increased while the total Remia portfolio also grew.
• Real-world testing creates valuable evidence: testing interventions in actual retail environments shows how changes perform within everyday commercial realities.

From one experiment to broader learning

One pilot does not provide all the answers. It does, however, demonstrate the value of testing interventions in real-world environments and measuring what happens in practice.

Through Living Labs, Foodvalley brings together manufacturers, retailers, researchers and innovators to generate practical evidence for healthier food systems. By moving beyond assumptions and measuring actual consumer behaviour, these collaborations help identify interventions that can create both societal and commercial value.

Because sometimes changing the food system starts with something as simple as changing the shelf.

The next step is to explore whether similar interventions can help accelerate the uptake of healthier products in other categories. Whether introducing a new healthier alternative, increasing the visibility of healthier products within an existing category, or even redefining an entire category norm, Living Labs provide a practical way to test what works before scaling.

Interested in exploring a Living Lab for your category or product portfolio? Let’s work together to generate the evidence needed to turn healthier choices into the easier choices.