Food vending marketing and promotion strategies in school environments in Tanzania

Research paper

Marketing and consumption of ultra-processed foods have increased across countries in Africa and it is associated with the risk of childhood obesity. The current school food environment has been reported to contribute to the increase in obesity rates worldwide; hence a need for increasing attention to the roles of the school environment in changing children’s dietary behaviour. This study assessed marketing and promotion strategies for foods sold around the school environments in Tanzania. A cross-sectional study involved 335 parent/caregiver-child pairs from rural and urban settings of Morogoro region. A stratified sampling technique was used to acquire a sample of children from registered primary schools. The schools were stratified into districts based on location and sampled separately through a probability sampling technique whereby, the population of school children in each school was divided into strata based on school ownership and area of residence. A total of eight schools were sampled with an equal number of private and public schools in each of the locations. Data on food marketing and promotion strategies were collected from 32 food vendors while information on food availability and factors influencing purchasing behavior were obtained from the children through structured questions. An observation checklist was used to collect additional information on food availability and marketing and promotion strategies for foods sold around the school environment. Data was analyzed using IBM -SPSS) version 21 software. Chi-square was used to test the difference between foods available in rural and urban school environments. The findings revealed that 60% of foods were processed in rural compared to urban areas (40%). More ultra-processed foods such as carbonated soft drinks, candies and ice lollies were identified in the urban (60.8%) than in rural-based schools (39.2%). The most purchased foods around schools were potato balls (49.4%), ice cream (47.5%), corn snacks (chama) (46.2%), chocolates (43.9%), carbonated soft drinks (37.3%), candies (36.6%) and sweet ice-lollies (34.4%). The most common marketing and promotion strategies around schools were posters, price reduction and packaging. Feeling hungry, food price, environment and social pressure were the factors contributing to food purchasing behaviour for foods sold around schools. Most of the foods consumed around the schools were ultra-processed and multiple marketing and promotion methods were used. The government through the Ministry of Education should regulate the types of foods sold in schools and plan for healthier school meals for all students by strengthening the school feeding program.