A scoping review to understand how organisations promote the nutritional health of manufacturing employees

Workplace nutritional health promotion has the potential to positively influence hard-to-reach population groups (1) . Manufacturing employees often work atypical hours, predisposing them to poor cardio-metabolic health, potentially mediated by poor dietary habits (2) . This scoping review aimed to (1) map research on workplace nutrition and well-being initiatives delivered to food and beverage manufacturing employees and (2) identify the behaviour change techniques (BCT) used in these interventions. A scoping review was performed in line with JBI methodology (3) . MEDLINE, EMBASE, APA PsycINFO and Web of Science, along with grey literature sources were searched. Only studies reporting a workplace intervention that included a nutrition component were included. Interventions were included if implemented in a manufacturing setting in a high-income country. Publications not in English language or published prior to year 2000 were excluded. Identified studies were screened by two researchers against the inclusion criteria (4) . Extracted data included participant characteristics, intervention types, context and study design. Interventions were mapped to one or more of the 93 BCT techniques (5) . The review protocol was registered on Open Science Framework (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/PKHGV). Thirty-five peer-reviewed and 13 case studies were identified as eligible. 54% of published studies were set in the food and beverage manufacturing setting, with the remainder set in “unspecified” manufacturing setting. Studies conducted in Europe or the USA formed 86% of the sample (25% UK), with ethnicity often unspecified (66%). Nutrition education (63%, n=19), environmental modifications (53%, n=16), and health screening (20%, n=6) interventions were most conducted. Only 20% of BCTs were applied, the most frequent being prompts/cues, restructuring the physical environment and behavioural instructions. The results highlight education, environmental modifications and health screenings as the most common nutrition strategies implemented in workplace health interventions in manufacturing settings. This reflects a dual focus on individual and organisational level of influence. A narrow range of BCTs were employed, suggesting a need for broader integration. The lack of reporting on participant ethnicity makes it difficult to assess the incorporation of cultural consideration in intervention design. Evidence on nutrition and wellbeing interventions in UK manufacturing is limited. To advance understanding of workplace interventions in hard-to-reach population groups, a broader range of BCT applications should be explored.