Effectiveness of nudge interventions to promote fruit and vegetables’ selection, purchase, or consumption: A systematic review

•A systematic review of nudging to promote fruit/vegetables in real-life settings was conducted.•A score was assigned for each intervention based on interventions’ effectiveness.•Informative and positional interventions proved to be the most studied and effective.•Effectiveness differs with the outcome measure, target age group and duration of intervention.•Promoting fruit/vegetables in real-life settings using nudge seems promising. This study assessed the effectiveness of nudge interventions aiming to increase the selection, purchase, or consumption of fruit and vegetables (F&V) in real-life settings. The review searched three databases (Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science) covering the period from 2008 to October 2022. Interventions were classified as either single or multi-stranded, based on the use of one, or two or more typologies, respectively. An effectiveness score was assigned to interventions: −1 for ineffective, 0.5 for partially effective, 1 for totally effective. Overall, 81 % of the interventions were effective (partially or totally). Regarding single-stranded interventions, informative and positional interventions had the highest scores of 9 and 5.5, respectively (in a range from 0.5 to 9). These remained the most effective typologies when both single and multi-stranded interventions were assessed with scores of 14 and 13.5 to position and information, respectively (in a range from −0.5 to 14). The most effective and studied strategies within these typologies involved altering the salience and accessibility and providing information using health claims, social norms, or labels/symbols. Interventions aiming to increase F&V purchases (score of 13.5, in a range from 6.5 to 13.5), conducted with adults (score of 21.5, in a range from 2.5 to 21.5) or tested for short periods (≤1 week) (score of 11.5, in a range from −0.5 to 11.5) were the most effective. Some results differed when adjusting to the total number of assessment moments. Nudging interventions are effective in promoting the selection, purchase, and consumption of F&V in real-life settings.