Nesta partnered with Starbucks to explore innovative ways to make healthier choices easier for customers across the UK. This collaboration aimed to develop initiatives that promote healthier options while maintaining the great taste and quality Starbucks customers expect.

Out-of-home meals and beverages play a significant role in shaping dietary habits, making the food and drink sector an important partner in promoting public health. The out-of-home sector contributes an average of 14% of daily calories consumed by adults aged 19-64 between 2019 and 2023. Even small shifts in the food environment can contribute to positive change. 

By collaborating with Starbucks, we sought to create practical solutions that empower customers to make healthier choices effortlessly. This partnership also allowed Nesta to gain deeper insights into how the out-of-home sector operates, ensuring that innovative, scalable approaches can support public health while maintaining the customer experience Starbucks is known for.

We introduced initiatives within the Starbucks app designed to promote healthier choices:

• Repositioning: Drinks, syrups, and milk options were reorganised to make healthier selections more prominent and accessible. 
• Blonde roast default: The default coffee bean for core espresso drinks was set to blonde roast, known for its naturally sweeter flavour. In drinks with syrups or sauces, this meant that the amount was adjusted to complement the new roast, reducing the default number of pumps of added sugar. Customers had the option to switch back to the signature espresso roast.

These initiatives were designed to guide customers toward healthier options without compromising their experience.

We analysed beverages purchased by Starbucks customers in the UK between 2 May 2024 and 7 August 2024.

The initiatives had a positive overall effect, demonstrating that small, thoughtful changes can make a significant difference. Customers responded to the changes by making healthier choices, leading to reductions in calories, sugar, and customisation behaviours.

Here are the key findings:

• Mochas had the greatest impact: Setting blonde roast as the default and reducing sauce pumps led to a 14.5 kcal (4.1%) decrease in calories and a 3.3g (7.9%) reduction in sugar per drink, both statistically significant.
• Blonde roast default reduced calories across espresso drinks: Espresso beverages with the blonde roast default and modifier reductions saw a statistically significant 2.1 kcal (1.4%) decrease in average calories per drink.
• Strong customer acceptance: App selection of blonde roast increased from 17% to 55% for mochas and from 15% to 43% for other espresso beverages.
• More customers picked sugar-free syrups: Making sugar-free syrups more prominent led to a statistically significant 2.1 percentage point increase in selecting sugar-free syrups.
• Repositioning alone did not change overall calorie content but did influence some customer choices: Drinks that only received repositioning interventions, without the blonde roast default, showed no significant change in average calorie content. However, making sugar-free syrups more prominent led to more customers selecting them, suggesting customers were adding rather than substituting syrups.
• Overall, drinks had fewer calories and less sugar: App purchases showed a statistically significant 1.1 kcal (0.6%) drop in calories and a 0.5g (2.1%) reduction in sugar per beverage (though it should be noted that the blonde roast default was applied to core espresso beverages only).
• The interventions seem commercially viable: there was no evidence of reduced app sales.

These results show how subtle, scalable changes can drive healthier decisions without compromising the customer experience or commercial performance.

This collaboration demonstrates how simple, customer-friendly initiatives can deliver meaningful results. By making healthier choices easier, Starbucks is setting an example for the industry.

Our analysis revealed a significant 14.5 kcal (4.1%) reduction in mocha calories, demonstrating the impact of an easy-to-implement and scalable intervention. If the 4.1% reduction in calories purchased seen in mochas could be scaled across all coffee sold in the UK this could lead to around £100 million in social value per year through a modest reduction in national obesity rates.

Starbucks’ commitment to these initiatives highlights the potential for businesses to lead the way in creating healthier food environments, benefiting both customers and society.

Building on the success of this collaboration, Nesta aims to support the wider food and drink industry in implementing similar initiatives. By sharing learnings from this project, we hope to inspire scalable, practical approaches that make healthier choices easier for customers across the sector. If you’d like to collaborate with us on similar initiatives, please get in touch at [email protected].