Using Dynamic Pricing to promote the Planetary Health Diet

AI Quick Summary

Difficulties hindering the shift to the planetary health diet may include consumers' habits, emotions, risk adversity towards trying new products, and pricing, which at times can be slightly higher in the category of plant-based transformed foods. Potentially, financial incentives or pricing strategies may be useful tools to nudge risk-averse and price sensitive consumers to purchase healthier and more environmentally friendly foods. Dynamic pricing means the cost of products fluctuates based on specific algorithmic criteria. In the context of food, dynamic pricing is already being used as a tool to avoid food waste. However, dynamic pricing is not yet used to improve consumption choices linked to nutrition. Dynamic bundling, a specific type of dynamic pricing, could be used to nudge the customers into building grocery carts that reflect the planetary health diet, in order to receive favorable prices and thus savings. Thus customers have financial incentives to help them overcome their risk-adversity. The Planetary Health Diet is a globally recognized dietary framework that promotes human health while respecting environmental sustainability. It emphasizes a shift toward plant-based foods—such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains—while reducing consumption of red meat, sugar, and highly processed foods. Currently, researchers and advocates for both the environment and healthy nutrition are working on ways to shift food consumption closer to the planetary health diet. Difficulties hindering the shift may include consumers' habits, emotions, risk-adversity towards trying new products, and pricing, which at times can be slightly higher in the category of plant-based transformed foods. Potentially, some financial incentives or pricing strategies may be useful tools to nudge risk-averse and/or price-sensitive consumers to purchase healthier and more environmentally friendly foods. Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy where the cost of products or services fluctuates based on specific algorithmic criteria, generally related to product demand or availability. Nevertheless, in the context of food, dynamic pricing is already being used as a tool to avoid food waste (see the company Wasteless). However, dynamic pricing is not yet used to improve consumption choices regarding the planetary health. It would be interesting to use dynamic bundling to implement dynamic pricing to improve consumers' overall food consumption. In this specific type of dynamic pricing, the final price does not fluctuate for single products but for the whole grocery basket as a whole. This would mean that the closer the whole shopping cart is to reflecting the planetary health diet, the more favorable the price would be for the buyer.Open questions that still require answering include the funding of the financial incentives : Would health insurances be interested? Retailers? Cantons?

Project Idea Metadata

• Project Idea Name: Using Dynamic Pricing to promote the Planetary Health Diet
• Date: 4/14/2025 12:47:10 PM
• Administrators:
  • Ashley Young

Project Idea Description

The Planetary Health Diet is a globally recognized dietary framework that promotes human health while respecting environmental sustainability. It emphasizes a shift toward plant-based foods—such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and whole grains—while reducing consumption of red meat, sugar, and highly processed foods. Currently, researchers and advocates for both the environment and healthy nutrition are working on ways to shift food consumption closer to the planetary health diet.

Difficulties hindering the shift may include consumers' habits, emotions, risk-adversity towards trying new products, and pricing, which at times can be slightly higher in the category of plant-based transformed foods. Potentially, some financial incentives or pricing strategies may be useful tools to nudge risk-averse and/or price-sensitive consumers to purchase healthier and more environmentally friendly foods.

Dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy where the cost of products or services fluctuates based on specific algorithmic criteria, generally related to product demand or availability. Nevertheless, in the context of food, dynamic pricing is already being used as a tool to avoid food waste (see the company Wasteless). However, dynamic pricing is not yet used to improve consumption choices regarding the planetary health.

It would be interesting to use dynamic bundling to implement dynamic pricing to improve consumers' overall food consumption. In this specific type of dynamic pricing, the final price does not fluctuate for single products but for the whole grocery basket as a whole. This would mean that the closer the whole shopping cart is to reflecting the planetary health diet, the more favorable the price would be for the buyer.

Open questions that still require answering include the funding of the financial incentives : Would health insurances be interested? Retailers? Cantons?

Difficulties hindering the shift to the planetary health diet may include consumers' habits, emotions, risk adversity towards trying new products, and pricing, which at times can be slightly higher in the category of plant-based transformed foods. Potentially, financial incentives or pricing strategies may be useful tools to nudge risk-averse and price sensitive consumers to purchase healthier and more environmentally friendly foods.

Dynamic pricing means the cost of products fluctuates based on specific algorithmic criteria. In the context of food, dynamic pricing is already being used as a tool to avoid food waste. However, dynamic pricing is not yet used to improve consumption choices linked to nutrition.

Dynamic bundling, a specific type of dynamic pricing, could be used to nudge the customers into building grocery carts that reflect the planetary health diet, in order to receive favorable prices and thus savings. Thus customers have financial incentives to help them overcome their risk-adversity.