Michelle Morris is Professor of Data Science for Food at the University of Leeds and Deputy Director of the Healthy and Sustainable Places Data Service. In this new three-part blog series, Michelle explores the role of academic-industry partnerships in driving food system change, unpacks the opportunities and limitations of consumer purchase data, and shares practical lessons for researchers seeking to build productive industry collaborations.
Food is at the centre of some of society’s biggest challenges. From rising rates of diet-related disease to climate change and food insecurity, creating a healthier and more sustainable food system requires action across the whole system.
For researchers, one of the most exciting developments in recent years has been the emergence of consumer purchase data from supermarkets. These data offer unprecedented insight into what people buy, how purchasing patterns change over time, and how consumers respond to interventions and policy changes in real-world settings.
But unlocking that potential requires data sharing collaboration. This article draws on insights from a recent paper I wrote with Nilani Sritharan, Group Head of Healthy and Sustainable Diets from Sainsbury’s, and some of our team members, bringing together both academic and industry perspectives on how consumer purchase data can support food system transformation.
Why work together?
Universities can bring expertise in public health, nutrition, data science and robust, independent evaluation. Retailers have skilled nutrition and data science teams, in-depth understanding of customer behaviours and hold vast amounts of information on food purchasing behaviours. Together, these strengths create opportunities that neither sector could achieve alone.
For researchers, access to consumer purchase data allows us to move beyond small surveys and self-reported information. We can study food purchasing patterns at scale, evaluate interventions in real-world environments, and generate evidence that is relevant to both policymakers and industry.
For retailers, academic partnerships provide independent evaluation and scientific rigour. Whilst retailers can run and evaluate health interventions swiftly internally, sharing data with researchers for independent evaluation and publication ensures that trials are robustly reviewed and that results can be shared as evidence in the public domain that can contribute to wider societal goals.
What does a successful partnership look like?
At the University of Leeds, we have worked closely with Sainsbury’s for many years and have more recently started to work with other retailers.
A good partnership requires significant investment at the beginning, with each party dedicating time to understanding each other’s priorities, identifying common goals, and agreeing how data will be governed and used.
One of the most important lessons we have learned is that partnership does not require identical motivations. Academics and retailers often approach a project from different perspectives, for example researchers may be interested in generating evidence to inform policy, while retailers may want to understand consumer behaviour or evaluate business initiatives.
The key is finding the “sweet spot” where both parties can achieve their goals while contributing to a shared objective.
Who benefits?
The obvious beneficiaries are the organisations involved. However, the greatest beneficiary should be society.
Academic-industry partnerships can:
- Improve understanding of population dietary patterns
- Evaluate public health interventions
- Inform food policy
- Support healthier purchasing behaviours
- Generate evidence for food system transformation
For example, here at the University of Leeds we have used purchase data to evaluate supermarket interventions, understand the impact of Healthy Start voucher top-ups, and assess responses to policies such as the HFSS product placement restrictions.
These studies would have been difficult, if not impossible, without access to commercial data.
Managing conflicts of interest
One concern often raised about industry collaboration is the potential for conflicts of interest, which is of course an important consideration.
However, I believe that the solution is not to avoid partnerships, but to ensure they operate within clear governance frameworks, transparent processes and robust ethical standards. Independent analysis, clear agreements to ensure publication of results and secure data management are all essential.
Consumer purchase data provide a powerful opportunity to generate evidence that can support healthier and more sustainable food choices. But these data can only achieve their full value when organisations work together. At HASP, we believe that carefully governed, transparent partnerships for a shared purpose offer great potential to add important insight while minimising conflicts.
This is the first of three articles in the series, keep an eye out for the next article where I’ll be exploring what sales data can (and can’t) tell us.
Article contributors and declaration of interests
- Michelle A Morris is an inventor and shareholder at Dietary Assessment Limited but has not received payment from the company to date. Michelle has worked with multiple large retailers who have shared data for research purposes.
- Nilani Sritharan and Maddie Thomas work for Sainsbury’s Plc.
- Alice Kininmonth, Emma Wilkins and Victoria Jenneson have worked with multiple large retailers who have shared data for research purposes.
