The retail food environment

Abstract

Local access to nutritious food is an important determinant of a healthy diet. Poor access to healthy food in areas of higher deprivation is of particular concern, although research from the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand does not confirm an association with food desserts and diet quality. Rather, there is some evidence from the UK to suggest that less healthy in-store environments may be exacerbating dietary inequalities. Food choice within supermarkets is heavily influenced by a number of components of the in-store and online retail food environment, including product availability, price, positioning, price promotions and signage. This chapter presents an overview of semi-systematic and systematic reviews,providing a synthesis of the current evidence for the effectiveness of interventions to increase access to healthy food or improve the healthiness of in-store environments at improving diet-related behaviours. Differential intervention effects on vulnerable groups are explored, a novel case study is outlined and recommendations for further policy and research actions to improve retail food environments are presented.

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ORCID for Christina Vogel: orcid.org/0000-0002-3897-3786

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