Collaboration with industry and third-sector partners in FIO Food and DIO Food

Exploring approaches to the food system to support people living with obesity and food insecurity to make healthier and more sustainable food choices
Shopping basket containing essential goods on the floor of a supermarket aisle

Overview

The FIO Food (Food Insecurity in people living with Obesity) project aimed to explore approaches to the food system that could support people living with obesity and food insecurity to make healthier and more sustainable food choices (Lonnie et al., 2023).
The DIO Food (Diet and Health Inequalities) project is an extension to FIO Food. DIO Food included three work packages, with one focused on evaluating the impacts of high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) legislation on sales of in-scope HFSS products and whether impacts were equitable. These insights were enriched with contextual insights from both retailers and shoppers. The HFSS legislation came into effect for England in October 2022, and restricted the placement of HFSS products in store and online.

People involved

The project team included multidisciplinary researchers from nutritional and social sciences, applied health, obesity, and data science at the University of Leeds and University of Aberdeen, collaborating with the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), and retail partners (Sainsbury's, ASDA, Morrisons and Tesco).
IGD aims to connect stakeholders across the food system (including academics, retailers, manufacturers, producers and policymakers), supporting collaborative research that prioritises healthy, sustainable food systems and public benefit.

Key project activities

Data sharing partnerships with retailers

  • In FIO Food, researchers worked with Sainsbury's, analysing supermarket transaction data from Nectar loyalty card records in conjunction with published environmental sustainability data to understand environmentally sustainable and healthy purchasing patterns. These insights, combined with evidence from people's lived experience, provide a basis for the co-design of retail strategies aimed at supporting people living with food insecurity and obesity in making healthier, more sustainable dietary choices. 
  • In DIO Food, the research team worked in partnership with IGD, ASDA, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco, analysing data from supermarket in-store product sales to evaluate the impacts of HFSS legislation on consumer food purchasing patterns. 
"This project demonstrates the power of collaboration. Countless individuals across the four retailers, two universities and the team at IGD worked together for over two years to make the sharing of 11.6 billion product sales possible for this research." (Researcher, DIO Food)

Workshops with academics and IGD

Attendees discussed findings from surveys with shoppers, and surveys and interviews conducted with UK retail employees and representatives from the British Retail Consortium and primary authority trading standards. Following the workshops, the research team developed evidence-based recommendations to guide the implementation of policy measures targeting unhealthy foods in retail settings. These recommendations were refined and updated following the release of the findings from the retailer sales analysis.

Disseminating research findings

The research team collaborated with IGD to translate academic research findings into practical and relevant resources (including a webinar and report) for retailers and other food system stakeholders.

Co-production principles

Relationships

The research builds on established partnerships between the University of Leeds, retailers and IGD. Despite this, the research team noted that setting up data sharing agreements with retailers, negotiating the types of data to be shared and the conditions of their use, was a time-consuming process. Building trust and long-term relationships with retailers was considered essential for this type of research. This was facilitated by the reputation of the research team and the Leeds Institute of Data Analytics, as well as their track record in managing large and commercially sensitive datasets using robust infrastructure and processes. The research team also emphasised the importance of clear communication with retailers regarding timelines, expectations and responsibilities: 
"Given the commercial sensitivity of it, it's… having that high degree of transparency and professionalism in your relationship with the retailers and having that clear communication throughout… and setting expectations up front, both from your side, but then being respectful of their expectations and what they need from you." (Researcher, DIO Food)
There are plans for academic-retailer partnerships to continue when the Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS) programme ends. Retailers were positive about the collaboration and expressed interest in adopting similar approaches in future: 
"I think more of those opportunities would be brilliant… so that would be fantastic – helping our own teams to upscale and learn from the academic groups in a broader TUKFS sense." (Retail partner, FIO Food)

Inclusivity

The FIO Food project enabled retailers to gain insights from communities experiencing food insecurity and obesity. Project partner Sainsbury's noted that the project has facilitated learning from groups "that we would struggle to reach out to otherwise, on our own, so it’s been extremely valuable in that sense." The findings are being shared with the Sainsbury's insight team to expand impact across the business.

Knowledge

The partnership offered mutual benefits, including new knowledge and learning opportunities, for both academic and industry collaborators. The research team valued retailers' context-specific knowledge of data and its potential limitations, alongside IGD's comprehensive understanding of how the industry operates. 
Following significant investment to prepare supermarket stores to align with HFSS legislation, the collaboration offered retailers a valuable opportunity to understand the policy's impact through an independent and robust evaluation. Involvement in the project not only highlighted to retailers the strategic value of their internal data but also provided a forum to learn new skills in methodological approaches and analytical techniques used by researchers. In addition, the partnership offered retailers new avenues to engage with policy makers:
"The policy piece has probably been the biggest benefit [of the partnership]. Being able to say, 'here’s how we’re trying to work to understand what’s working' and being able to talk to that collaboration has been very powerful. We’re probably quite unique as a retailer in being able to do that. For example, with the Lords Committee response, we won’t respond as [the organisation], we’re going to respond as the consortium because that’s a good example of where we’re trying to drive change." (Retail partner, FIO Food)

Power

IGD were involved in DIO Food project coordination, convening meetings between retailers and the research team, clearly outlining boundaries for the research, for example, by reiterating competition law, thus limiting potential conflicts. A researcher recognised the value of IGD's intermediary role in the project:
"It was useful to have them as sort of a bridge between us… they represent research and science, but they also represent the retailers. So, everybody kind of felt like they were sort of supported by this third party, and they were… impartial." (Researcher, DIO Food)
 

Find out more about this project

Related references

Crabtree, D.R., Hunter, E., Jenneson, V., Fildes, A., Kininmonth, A., Pontin, F., Ennis, E., Lonnie, M., Skeggs, H., McHugh, L., Morris, M. A., Douglas, F., Johnstone, A.M. (2024). Diet and health inequalities: connecting with vulnerable groups to address food insecurity – the DIO Food project. Nutrition Bulletin 49: 561-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12709
ICF Consulting Services Limited and Technopolis (2025). Transforming UK Food Systems (TUKFS) Programme. Interim Impact Evaluation Report. Accessed 1 September 2025. https://www.ukri.org/publications/transforming-uk-food-systems-spf-programme-interim-evaluation/
IGD (2023). Investigating the impact of HFSS. Institute of Grocery Distribution. Accessed 25 June 2024. https://www.igd.com/social-impact/health/articles/investigating-the-impact-of-hfss/23429
IGD (2024). The latest on investigating the impact of HFSS. Institute of Grocery Distribution. Accessed 25 June 2024. https://www.igd.com/social-impact/health/articles/the-latest-on-investigating-the-impact-of-hfss/48195
IGD (2025). Evaluation of the HFSS placement legislation. Institute of Grocery Distribution. Accessed 22 August 2025. https://www.igd.com/reports/evaluation-of-the-hfss-placement-legislation/71594
Jenneson, V., Kininmonth, A., Wilkins, E., Chukwu, I., Eselebor, O., Pontin, F., Naisbitt, R., Johnstone, A., Fildes, A., and Morris, M. (2025). Did High in Fat, Sugar, and Salt (HFSS) legislation in England lead to reduced HFSS purchases? An interrupted time series analysis (preprint). https://osf.io/preprints/osf/j6b8p_v1
Kininmonth, A. R., Stone, R. A., Jenneson, V., Ennis, E., Naisbitt, R., Johnstone, A. M., Morris, M. A., Fildes, A., and the DIO Food Team. (2025). “It was a force for good but…”: a mixed-methods evaluation of the implementation of the High in Fat, Sugar and Salt (HFSS) legislation in England (preprint). https://osf.io/preprints/osf/3xjtv_v1
Kininmonth, A. R., Jenneson, V.L., Pontin, P., Halford, J.C.G., Johnstone, A.M., Morris, M.A., Fildes, A. (2025). Customer awareness and perceptions of the high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) placement legislation and impacts on self-reported food purchasing. Food Policy, 135, 102941. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102941
Kininmonth, A. R., Stone, R. A., Jenneson, V., Naisbitt, R., Van, D. T. T., Johnstone, A. M., Fildes, A., and Morris, M. A., DIO Food (2025). Restricting unhealthy foods in retail environments. Evidence-based recommendations for policy impact. Insights from the DIO Food Project. OSF. Accessed 04 September 2025. https://osf.io/p84wk
Lonnie, M., Hunter, E., Stone, R. A., Dineva, M., Aggreh, M., Greatwood, H., Johnstone, A. M. and FIO Food team (2023). Food insecurity in people living with obesity: Improving sustainable and healthier food choices in the retail food environment-the FIO Food project, Nutrition Bulletin, 48: 390–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/nbu.12626
Lonnie, M., D. R. Crabtree, D. R. and Johnstone, A. M. on behalf of the FIO Food Team (2024). Tackling dietary inequalities in the UK food system: An exploration of stakeholders' experiences to deliver national recommendations for policy and health care practitioners (a framework for action). https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/evc9y