Development and evaluation of a food environment survey in three urban environments of Kunming, China.

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Hua, Jenna; Seto, Edmund; Li, Yan; Wang, May C

2014-03-06

Given the rapid pace of urbanization and Westernization and the increasing prevalence of obesity, there is a need for research to better understand the influence of the built environment on overweight and obesity in world's developing regions. Culturally-specific food environment survey instruments are important tools for studying changing food availability and pricing. Here, we present findings from an effort to develop and evaluate food environment survey instruments for use in a rapidly developing city in southwest China. We developed two survey instruments (for stores and restaurants), each designed to be completed within 10 minutes. Two pairs of researchers surveyed a pre-selected 1-km stretch of street in each of three socio-demographically different neighborhoods to assess inter-rater reliability. Construct validity was assessed by comparing the food environments of the neighborhoods to cross-sectional height and weight data obtained on 575 adolescents in the corresponding regions of the city. 273 food establishments (163 restaurants and 110 stores) were surveyed. Sit-down, take-out, and fast food restaurants accounted for 40%, 21% and 19% of all restaurants surveyed. Tobacco and alcohol shops, convenience stores and supermarkets accounted for 25%, 12% and 11%, respectively, of all stores surveyed. We found a high percentage of agreement between teams (>75%) for all categorical variables with moderate kappa scores (0.4-0.6), and no statistically significant differences between teams for any of the continuous variables. More developed inner city neighborhoods had a higher number of fast food restaurants and convenience stores than surrounding neighborhoods. Adolescents who lived in the more developed inner neighborhoods also had a higher percentage of overweight, indicating well-founded construct validity. Depending on the cutoff used, 19% to 36% of male and 10% to 22% of female 16-year old adolescents were found to be overweight. The prevalence of

Abrupt changes in the patterns and complexity of anterior cingulate cortex activity when food is introduced into an environment

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Barak Francisco Caracheo

2013-05-01

Full Text Available AbstractForaging typically involves two distinct phases, an exploration phase where an organism explores its local environment in search of needed resources and an exploitation phase where a discovered resource is consumed. The behavior and cognitive requirements of exploration and exploitation are quite different and yet organisms can quickly and efficiently switch between them many times during a foraging bout. The present study investigated neural activity state dynamics in the anterior cingulate sub-region of the rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC when a reliable food source was introduced into an environment. Distinct and largely independent states were detected using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM when food was present or absent in the environment. Measures of neural entropy or complexity decreased when rats went from exploring the environment to exploiting a reliable food source. Exploration in the absence of food was associated with many weak activity states, while bouts of food consumption were characterized by fewer stronger states. Widespread activity state changes in the mPFC may help to inform foraging decisions and focus behavior on what is currently most prominent or valuable in the environment.

Local Food and Meanings in Contemporary China: The Case of Southwest Hubei

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Xu Wu

2015-09-01

Full Text Available This article focuses on local food and the associated meanings in the ethnic area of central China and is based on field research in Enshi prefecture, a Tujia-Miao autonomous prefecture that lies in the southwest Hubei province. As in many other areas in contemporary China, the local food in south west Hubei, central China, known as hezha food, has been integrated into the urban restaurant system and has acquired a variety of meanings. In Enshi prefecture, special varieties of local food, such as hezha, baogufan (a dish made of maize flour and rice, tularou (smoked pork and zhaguangjiao (a preserved food made of maize flour and red chili pepper had long been treated as markers of local regional food or of “coarse” country cuisine. A combination of maize’s reliable high yield in mountain fields and local people’s culinary wisdom, has meant that hezha food has played a key role in the modern history of this mountain area. Up to the early 1990s, the common dish made of maize has served as the marker of mountain life (described as miserable life sometimes. In the early 1990s, when the Chinese government launched a nationwide rural development project, Enshi’s officials went to villagers’ kitchens to check if a maize dish was being replaced with that of rice. However, such food of the poor people did not disappear at all with rural development. Many farmers said that they had easier access to meat (pork and rice (which symbolize a higher standard of living and is often associated with Han, the majority than ever before, but since the mid-1990s, Enshi prefecture has witnessed a conspicuous phenomenon of local people returning to “coarse” local food despite an abundance of meat and rice. What is more, such local food has found its way into the urban restaurant system: as food in the Hezha restaurants, Ethnic restaurants, as well as Farmhouse Joy restaurants. The standardization of local food in these restaurants has involved both

Local food prices and their associations with children's weight and food security.

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Morrissey, Taryn W; Jacknowitz, Alison; Vinopal, Katie

2014-03-01

Both obesity and food insecurity are important public health problems facing young children in the United States. A lack of affordable, healthy foods is one of the neighborhood factors presumed to underlie both food insecurity and obesity among children. We examine associations between local food prices and children's BMI, weight, and food security outcomes. We linked data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, a nationally representative study of children from infancy to age 5, to local food price data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) Cost-of-Living Index (n = 11,700 observations). Using ordinary least squares (OLS), linear probability, and within-child fixed effects (FE) models, we exploit the variability in food price data over time and among children who move residences focusing on a subsample of households under 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. Results from ordinary least squares and FE models indicate that higher-priced fruits and vegetables are associated with higher child BMI, and this relationship is driven by the prices of fresh (versus frozen or canned) fruits and vegetables. In the FE models, higher-priced soft drinks are associated with a lower likelihood of being overweight, and surprisingly, higher fast food prices are associated with a greater likelihood of being overweight. Policies that reduce the costs of fresh fruits and vegetables may be effective in promoting healthy weight outcomes among young children.

Multifunctional Peri-Urban Agriculture and Local Food Access in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal: A Review

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Shreema Rana

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Based on the threatening global challenge of increasing urban population with decreasing resources to feed them, the existing literature is reviewed in this paper to highlight; i the urban food supply chain, and ii food security as a benefit of Peri-Urban Agriculture. This is deployed to fit the context of the developing regions of the world where urbanization does not occur in an organized manner. It is known that food grown in peri-urban areas (defined as the fastest growing areas that surround cities but are neither urban nor rural in the conventional sense is easily available to urban inhabitants. Such peri-urban areas have the least adverse effects on the environment from a food transportation perspective and are more resilient in times of uncertain physical (disaster and socioeconomic (fuel and food price rise pressures. Today, much fertile peri-urban land is converted haphazardly without considering its environmental value and agricultural potential. Likewise, peri-urban agriculture is still in the process of being acknowledged by both locals and policy-makers despite being an accepted mode of achieving food security. Therefore, this paper seeks to orient the review literature and underline the gaps that prevail at the grass-roots level of local preferences and values and at the policy-maker level. Using extensive literature review as the methodology, this study draws recent ideas on the multi-functionality of peri-urban agriculture and the sustainable contribution it makes to both developed and developing countries around the world. The findings of the review highlight the significance of peri-urban areas in the Kathmandu Valley for a sustainable and a reliable food chain. It also shows the existing but unrecognized features of peri-urban agriculture both at local and policy-making levels. It discusses the point of interest and possible extension of the multifunctional peri-urban agriculture for local food access, inviting further

FEAST: Empowering Community Residents to Use Technology to Assess and Advocate for Healthy Food Environments.

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Sheats, Jylana L; Winter, Sandra J; Romero, Priscilla Padilla; King, Abby C

2017-04-01

Creating environments that support healthy eating is important for successful aging, particularly in light of the growing population of older adults in the United States. There is an urgent need to identify innovative upstream solutions to barriers experienced by older adults in accessing and buying healthy food. FEAST (Food Environment Assessment STudy) is an effort that is part of the global Our Voice initiative, which utilizes a combination of technology and community-engaged methods to empower citizen scientists (i.e., community residents) to: (1) use the Healthy Neighborhood Discovery Tool (Discovery Tool) mobile application to collect data (geocoded photos, audio narratives) about aspects of their environment that facilitate or hinder healthy living; and (2) use findings to advocate for change in partnership with local decision and policy makers. In FEAST, 23 racially/ethnically diverse, low-income, and food-insecure older adults residing in urban, North San Mateo County, CA, were recruited to use the Discovery Tool to examine factors that facilitated or hindered their access to food as well as their food-related behaviors. Participants collectively reviewed data retrieved from the Discovery Tool and identified and prioritized important, yet feasible, issues to address. Access to affordable healthy food and transportation were identified as the major barriers to eating healthfully and navigating their neighborhood food environments. Subsequently, participants were trained in advocacy skills and shared their findings with relevant decision and policymakers, who in turn dispelled myths and discussed and shared resources to address relevant community needs. Proximal and distal effects of the community-engaged process at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months were documented and revealed individual-, community-, and policy-level impacts. Finally, FEAST contributes to the evidence on multi-level challenges that low-income, racially/ethnically diverse older adults experience

Supply Chain Control Principles in Local Food Production: A Norwegian Case Study

OpenAIRE

Heidi C. Dreyer; Jan O. Strandhagen; Maria K. Thomassen; Anita Romsdal; Erik Gran

2014-01-01

Based on an analysis of the supply chain of four producers of local specialty foods, we explore how planning and control principles can be applied to align supply chain capabilities and market requirements. It has been shown that local food struggles with market access, and that the supply chain is one of the obstacles preventing local food producers from gaining a solid market position. We identify a number of features of the local food chain, analyse the obstacles and develop generic design...

Food-and-beverage environment and procurement policies for healthier work environments.

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Gardner, Christopher D; Whitsel, Laurie P; Thorndike, Anne N; Marrow, Mary W; Otten, Jennifer J; Foster, Gary D; Carson, Jo Ann S; Johnson, Rachel K

2014-06-01

The importance of creating healthier work environments by providing healthy foods and beverages in worksite cafeterias, in on-site vending machines, and at meetings and conferences is drawing increasing attention. Large employers, federal and state governments, and hospital systems are significant purchasers and providers of food and beverages. The American Heart Association, federal government, and other organizations have created procurement standards to guide healthy purchasing by these entities. There is a need to review how procurement standards are currently implemented, to identify important minimum criteria for evaluating health and purchasing outcomes, and to recognize significant barriers and challenges to implementation, along with success stories. The purpose of this policy paper is to describe the role of food-and-beverage environment and procurement policy standards in creating healthier worksite environments; to review recently created national model standards; to identify elements across the standards that are important to consider for incorporation into policies; and to delineate issues to address as standards are implemented across the country. © 2014 International Life Sciences Institute.

Indian adolescents' perceptions of the home food environment.

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Rathi, Neha; Riddell, Lynn; Worsley, Anthony

2018-01-22

The home food environment has the potential to influence the eating behaviour of adolescents. This investigation aimed to understand Indian adolescents' perspectives of their home food environments. Adolescents aged 14-16 years (n = 1026, 65.3% girls) attending private secondary schools in Kolkata completed a paper-based questionnaire during school time which included questions about family food rules, availability and accessibility of foods at home, and domestic cooking responsibility. Boys' and girls' opinions and experiences were compared through cross-tabulation analyses. Almost all the adolescents reported that fruits (91.6%) and vegetables (95.7%) were always available in their homes. Approximately two-fifths reported that sugar-sweetened beverages (36.2%) and salty snack foods (38.0%) were readily available. In 56.1% households, adolescents were expected to follow certain food rules during mealtimes (e.g. not talking with my mouth full). The majority of the respondents (80.4%) identified mothers as the primary meal providers, only a minority reported that fathers (5.1%) were responsible for preparation of family meals. This understanding of the family-environmental determinants of adolescent dietary habits provides useful directions for nutrition promotion interventions. Health and educational professionals associated with adolescents could communicate about the development of healthy home food environments to provide positive health benefits for adolescents and their families.

Determinants of eating at local and western fast-food venues in an urban Asian population: a mixed methods approach.

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Naidoo, Nasheen; van Dam, Rob M; Ng, Sheryl; Tan, Chuen Seng; Chen, Shiqi; Lim, Jia Yi; Chan, Mei Fen; Chew, Ling; Rebello, Salome A

2017-05-25

Like several Southeast Asian countries, Singapore has a complex eating-out environment and a rising eating-out prevalence. However the determinants and drivers of eating-out in urban Asian environments are poorly understood. We examined the socio-demographic characteristics of persons who frequently ate away from home in local eateries called hawker centres and Western fast-food restaurants, using data from 1647 Singaporean adults participating in the National Nutrition Survey (NNS) 2010. We also assessed the underlying drivers of eating out and evaluated if these were different for eating at local eateries compared to Western fast-food restaurants using 18 focus group discussions of women (130 women). Participants reported a high eating-out frequency with 77.3% usually eating either breakfast, lunch or dinner at eateries. Main venues for eating-out included hawker centres (61.1% usually ate at least 1 of 3 daily meals at this venue) and school/workplace canteens (20.4%). A minority of participants (1.9%) reported usually eating at Western fast-food restaurants. Younger participants and those of Chinese and Malay ethnicity compared to Indians were more likely to eat at Western fast-food restaurants. Chinese and employed persons were more likely to eat at hawker centres. The ready availability of a large variety of affordable and appealing foods appeared to be a primary driver of eating out, particularly at hawker centres. Our findings highlight the growing importance of eating-out in an urban Asian population where local eating venues play a more dominant role compared with Western fast-food chains. Interventions focusing on improving the food quality at venues for eating out are important to improve the diet of urban Asian populations.

Food Environments around American Indian Reservations: A Mixed Methods Study.

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Chodur, Gwen M; Shen, Ye; Kodish, Stephen; Oddo, Vanessa M; Antiporta, Daniel A; Jock, Brittany; Jones-Smith, Jessica C

2016-01-01

To describe the food environments experienced by American Indians living on tribal lands in California. Geocoded statewide food business data were used to define and categorize existing food vendors into healthy, unhealthy, and intermediate composite categories. Distance to and density of each of the composite food vendor categories for tribal lands and nontribal lands were compared using multivariate linear regression. Quantitative results were concurrently triangulated with qualitative data from in-depth interviews with tribal members (n = 24). After adjusting for census tract-level urbanicity and per capita income, results indicate there were significantly fewer healthy food outlets per square mile for tribal areas compared to non-tribal areas. Density of unhealthy outlets was not significantly different for tribal versus non-tribal areas. Tribal members perceived their food environment negatively and reported barriers to the acquisition of healthy food. Urbanicity and per capita income do not completely account for disparities in food environments among American Indians tribal lands compared to nontribal lands. This disparity in access to healthy food may present a barrier to acting on the intention to consume healthy food.

Ingredients for Success: Strategies to Support Local Food Use in Health Care Institutions.

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Linton, Emily; Keller, Heather; Duizer, Lisa

2018-06-12

There is growing interest in use of local food within health care institutions such as hospitals and long-term care homes. This study explored stakeholder perspectives on (i) influences on local food use and (ii) strategies that support success and sustainability of use in health care institutions. Fifteen participants who were institutional leaders with experience in implementing or supporting local food use in health care institutions in Ontario were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling. A semi-structured interview was conducted by telephone and audio-recorded. Qualitative content analysis identified that influences on local food use were: product availability, staff and management engagement, and legislation and resources (e.g., funding, labour). Several strategies were offered for building and sustaining success including: setting goals, requesting local food availability from suppliers, and more clearly identifying local foods in product lists. The influences and potential strategies highlighted in this paper provide a greater understanding for dietitians and food service managers on how local foods can be incorporated into health care institutions.

Retail food environments in Canada: Maximizing the impact of research, policy and practice.

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Minaker, Leia M

2016-06-09

Retail food environments are gaining national and international attention as important determinants of population dietary intake. Communities across Canada are beginning to discuss and implement programs and policies to create supportive retail food environments. Three considerations should drive the selection of food environment assessment methods: relevance (What is the problem, and how is it related to dietary outcomes?); resources (What human, time and financial resources are required to undertake an assessment?); and response (How will policy-makers find meaning out of and act on the information gained through the food environment assessment?). Ultimately, food environment assessments should be conducted in the context of stakeholder buy-in and multi-sectoral partnerships, since food environment solutions require multi-sectoral action. Partnerships between public health actors and the food and beverage industry can be challenging, especially when mandates are not aligned. Clarifying the motivations, expectations and roles of all stakeholders takes time but is important if the impact of food environment research, policy and practice is to be maximized. The articles contained in this special supplementary issue describe ongoing food environments research across Canada and fill some of the important gaps in the current body of Canadian food environments literature.

Did the Food Environment Cause the Obesity Epidemic?

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Hall, Kevin D

2018-01-01

Several putative explanations of the obesity epidemic relate to the changing food environment. Individual dietary macronutrients have each been theorized to be the prime culprit for population obesity, but these explanations are unlikely. Rather, obesity probably resulted from changes in the caloric quantity and quality of the food supply in concert with an industrialized food system that produced and marketed convenient, highly processed foods from cheap agricultural inputs. Such foods often contain high amounts of salt, sugar, fat, and flavor additives and are engineered to have supernormal appetitive properties driving increased consumption. Ubiquitous access to convenient and inexpensive food also changed normative eating behavior, with more people snacking, eating in restaurants, and spending less time preparing meals at home. While such changes in the food environment provide a likely explanation of the obesity epidemic, definitive scientific demonstration is hindered by the difficulty in experimentally isolating and manipulating important variables at the population level. Published 2017. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

The food environment and adult obesity in US metropolitan areas.

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Michimi, Akihiko; Wimberly, Michael C

2015-11-26

This research examines the larger-scale associations between obesity and food environments in metropolitan areas in the United States (US). The US Census County Business Patterns dataset for 2011 was used to construct various indices of food environments for selected metropolitan areas. The numbers of employees engaged in supermarkets, convenience stores, full service restaurants, fast food restaurants, and snack/coffee shops were standardised using the location quotients, and factor analysis was used to produce two uncorrelated factors measuring food environments. Data on obesity were obtained from the 2011 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Individual level obesity measures were linked to the metropolitan area level food environment factors. Models were fitted using generalised estimating equations to control for metropolitan area level intra-correlation and individual level sociodemographic characteristics. It was found that adults residing in cities with a large share of supermarket and full-service restaurant workers were less likely to be obese, while adults residing in cities with a large share of convenience store and fast food restaurant workers were more likely to be obese. Supermarkets and full-service restaurant workers are concentrated in the Northeast and West of the US, where obesity prevalence is relatively lower, while convenience stores and fast-food restaurant workers are concentrated in the South and Midwest, where obesity prevalence is relatively higher. The food environment landscapes measured at the metropolitan area level explain the continental-scale patterns of obesity prevalence. The types of food that are readily available and widely served may translate into obesity disparities across metropolitan areas.

"Closing the Loop": Overcoming barriers to locally sourcing food in Fort Collins, Colorado

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DeMets, C. M.

2012-12-01

Environmental sustainability has become a focal point for many communities in recent years, and restaurants are seeking creative ways to become more sustainable. As many chefs realize, sourcing food locally is an important step towards sustainability and towards building a healthy, resilient community. Review of literature on sustainability in restaurants and the local food movement revealed that chefs face many barriers to sourcing their food locally, but that there are also many solutions for overcoming these barriers that chefs are in the early stages of exploring. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify barriers to local sourcing and investigate how some restaurants are working to overcome those barriers in the city of Fort Collins, Colorado. To do this, interviews were conducted with four subjects who guide purchasing decisions for restaurants in Fort Collins. Two of these restaurants have created successful solutions and are able to source most of their food locally. The other two are interested in and working towards sourcing locally but have not yet been able to overcome barriers, and therefore only source a few local items. Findings show that there are four barriers and nine solutions commonly identified by each of the subjects. The research found differences between those who source most of their food locally and those who have not made as much progress in local sourcing. Based on these results, two solution flowcharts were created, one for primary barriers and one for secondary barriers, for restaurants to assess where they are in the local food chain and how they can more successfully source food locally. As there are few explicit connections between this research question and climate change, it is important to consider the implicit connections that motivate and justify this research. The question of whether or not greenhouse gas emissions are lower for locally sourced food is a topic of much debate, and while there are major developments

News Release: USDA Joins Fair Food Network, State and Local Partners to

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vitamin C, calcium, and iron. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan in Flint is distributing those USDA Foods Joins Fair Food Network, State and Local Partners to Promote Nutrition Resources for Lead-Affected Flint Residents News Release: USDA Joins Fair Food Network, State and Local Partners to Promote Nutrition

Geospatial analysis of food environment demonstrates associations with gestational diabetes.

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Kahr, Maike K; Suter, Melissa A; Ballas, Jerasimos; Ramin, Susan M; Monga, Manju; Lee, Wesley; Hu, Min; Shope, Cindy D; Chesnokova, Arina; Krannich, Laura; Griffin, Emily N; Mastrobattista, Joan; Dildy, Gary A; Strehlow, Stacy L; Ramphul, Ryan; Hamilton, Winifred J; Aagaard, Kjersti M

2016-01-01

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is one of most common complications of pregnancy, with incidence rates varying by maternal age, race/ethnicity, obesity, parity, and family history. Given its increasing prevalence in recent decades, covariant environmental and sociodemographic factors may be additional determinants of GDM occurrence. We hypothesized that environmental risk factors, in particular measures of the food environment, may be a diabetes contributor. We employed geospatial modeling in a populous US county to characterize the association of the relative availability of fast food restaurants and supermarkets to GDM. Utilizing a perinatal database with >4900 encoded antenatal and outcome variables inclusive of ZIP code data, 8912 consecutive pregnancies were analyzed for correlations between GDM and food environment based on countywide food permit registration data. Linkage between pregnancies and food environment was achieved on the basis of validated 5-digit ZIP code data. The prevalence of supermarkets and fast food restaurants per 100,000 inhabitants for each ZIP code were gathered from publicly available food permit sources. To independently authenticate our findings with objective data, we measured hemoglobin A1c levels as a function of geospatial distribution of food environment in a matched subset (n = 80). Residence in neighborhoods with a high prevalence of fast food restaurants (fourth quartile) was significantly associated with an increased risk of developing GDM (relative to first quartile: adjusted odds ratio, 1.63; 95% confidence interval, 1.21-2.19). In multivariate analysis, this association held true after controlling for potential confounders (P = .002). Measurement of hemoglobin A1c levels in a matched subset were significantly increased in association with residence in a ZIP code with a higher fast food/supermarket ratio (n = 80, r = 0.251 P analysis, a relationship of food environment and risk for gestational diabetes was

LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Victor MOROZ

2013-01-01

Full Text Available The main challenge of the food sector in the Republic of Moldova is to identify specific needs and opportunities for agriculture and rural development throughout food supply chains, and focusing investment in areas where the most impact will be made. The identification and allocation of resources requires analysis of main dimensions of food supply chains, in order to establish links and determine local factors. In small transition economies the diagnosis of the food supply chains, is typically based on limited data and incomplete information. In order to investigate the actual state of food supply chains were used specific methods and techniques: statistical and economic analysis of macro-economic indicators, semi-structured interviews of key stakeholders, analysis of the impact of public policies on the agro-food sector. In the article is analyzed the process of food systems formation and integration at the local and global level. Although it is a small part of the overall agricultural sector, various local food systems are under development in the Republic of Moldova. These systems bring consumers in close contact with farmers and mobilize them to support local farms and sustainable farming practices. While local food systems continue to face many barriers, many of them show considerable potential for growth.

Food Environments around American Indian Reservations: A Mixed Methods Study.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gwen M Chodur

Full Text Available To describe the food environments experienced by American Indians living on tribal lands in California.Geocoded statewide food business data were used to define and categorize existing food vendors into healthy, unhealthy, and intermediate composite categories. Distance to and density of each of the composite food vendor categories for tribal lands and nontribal lands were compared using multivariate linear regression. Quantitative results were concurrently triangulated with qualitative data from in-depth interviews with tribal members (n = 24.After adjusting for census tract-level urbanicity and per capita income, results indicate there were significantly fewer healthy food outlets per square mile for tribal areas compared to non-tribal areas. Density of unhealthy outlets was not significantly different for tribal versus non-tribal areas. Tribal members perceived their food environment negatively and reported barriers to the acquisition of healthy food.Urbanicity and per capita income do not completely account for disparities in food environments among American Indians tribal lands compared to nontribal lands. This disparity in access to healthy food may present a barrier to acting on the intention to consume healthy food.

Measuring the food and built environments in urban centres

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pomerleau, Joceline; Knai, Cecile; McKee, M

2013-01-01

Objectives: The authors designed an instrument to measure objectively aspects of the built and food environments in urban areas, the EURO-PREVOB Community Questionnaire, within the EU-funded project ‘Tackling the social and economic determinants of nutrition and physical activity for the prevention...... of obesity across Europe’ (EURO-PREVOB). This paper describes its development, reliability, validity, feasibility and relevance to public health and obesity research. Study design: The Community Questionnaire is designed to measure key aspects of the food and built environments in urban areas of varying...... levels of affluence or deprivation, within different countries. The questionnaire assesses (1) the food environment and (2) the built environment. Methods: Pilot tests of the EURO-PREVOB Community Questionnaire were conducted in five to 10 purposively sampled urban areas of different socio...

Food environments of young people: linking individual behaviour to environmental context.

OpenAIRE

Tyrrell, RL; Greenhalgh, F; Hodgson, S; Wills, WJ; Mathers, JC; Adamson, AJ; Lake, AA

2016-01-01

We aimed to identify and characterize the food environments from which young people obtain food and to explore associations between the type of food environment and food intakes.Young people (n = 86, mean age 17 years; combined data of two sequential pilot studies (collected in 2008-09) and a study conducted in 2011-12) recorded in 4-day self-complete food diaries what food they consumed and where food was sourced. Nutrient, fruit and vegetable intake was calculated according to the source of...

Local environment effects in disordered alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cable, J.W.

1978-01-01

The magnetic moment of an atom in a ferromagnetic disordered alloy depends on the local environment of that atom. This is particularly true for Ni and Pd based alloys for which neutron diffuse scattering measurements of the range and magnitude of the moment disturbances indicate that both magnetic and chemical environment are important in determining the moment distribution. In this paper we review recent neutron studies of local environment effects in Ni based alloys. These are discussed in terms of a phenomenological model that allows a separation of the total moment disturbance at a Ni site into its chemical and magnetic components

Do GIS-derived measures of fast food retailers convey perceived fast food opportunities? Implications for food environment assessment

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Timothy L.; Colabianchi, Natalie; Freedman, Darcy A.; Bell, Bethany A.; Liese, Angela D.

2018-01-01

Purpose Geographic information systems (GISs) have been used to define fast food availability, with higher availability perhaps promoting poorer quality diets. Alternative measures involve perceptions; however, few studies have examined associations between GIS-derived and perceived measures of the food environment. Methods Telephone surveys of 705 participants within an eight-county region in South Carolina were analyzed using logistic regression to examine relationships between geographic presence of and distance to various types of food retailers and perceived fast food availability. Results The mean distance to the nearest fast food restaurant was 6.1 miles, with 16% of participants having a fast food restaurant within 1 mile of home. The geographic presence of and distance to all food retailer types were significantly associated with perceived availability of fast food in unadjusted models. After adjustment, only the presence of a fast food restaurant or pharmacy was significantly associated with greater odds of higher perceived availability of fast food. Greater odds of lower perceived availability of fast food were observed with the presence of a dollar store and increasing distance to the nearest supermarket or pharmacy. Conclusions Measures of fast food availability, whether objective or perceived, may not be interchangeable. Researchers should carefully decide on the appropriate measurement tool—GIS-derived or perceived—in food environment studies. PMID:27617371

Do GIS-derived measures of fast food retailers convey perceived fast food opportunities? Implications for food environment assessment.

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, Timothy L; Colabianchi, Natalie; Freedman, Darcy A; Bell, Bethany A; Liese, Angela D

2017-01-01

Geographic information systems (GISs) have been used to define fast food availability, with higher availability perhaps promoting poorer quality diets. Alternative measures involve perceptions; however, few studies have examined associations between GIS-derived and perceived measures of the food environment. Telephone surveys of 705 participants within an eight-county region in South Carolina were analyzed using logistic regression to examine relationships between geographic presence of and distance to various types of food retailers and perceived fast food availability. The mean distance to the nearest fast food restaurant was 6.1 miles, with 16% of participants having a fast food restaurant within 1 mile of home. The geographic presence of and distance to all food retailer types were significantly associated with perceived availability of fast food in unadjusted models. After adjustment, only the presence of a fast food restaurant or pharmacy was significantly associated with greater odds of higher perceived availability of fast food. Greater odds of lower perceived availability of fast food were observed with the presence of a dollar store and increasing distance to the nearest supermarket or pharmacy. Measures of fast food availability, whether objective or perceived, may not be interchangeable. Researchers should carefully decide on the appropriate measurement tool-GIS-derived or perceived-in food environment studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The neighborhood food environment: sources of historical data on retail food stores

OpenAIRE

Gonzalez Alma A; Wang May C; Ritchie Lorrene D; Winkleby Marilyn A

2006-01-01

Abstract With the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity in the United States, and the minimal success of education-based interventions, there is growing interest in understanding the role of the neighborhood food environment in determining dietary behavior. This study, as part of a larger study, identifies historical data on retail food stores, evaluates strengths and limitations of the data for research, and assesses the comparability of historical retail food store data from a government...

Population and prehistory I: Food-dependent population growth in constant environments.

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Lee, Charlotte T; Tuljapurkar, Shripad

2008-06-01

We present a demographic model that describes the feedbacks between food supply, human mortality and fertility rates, and labor availability in expanding populations, where arable land area is not limiting. This model provides a quantitative framework to describe how environment, technology, and culture interact to influence the fates of preindustrial agricultural populations. We present equilibrium conditions and derive approximations for the equilibrium population growth rate, food availability, and other food-dependent measures of population well-being. We examine how the approximations respond to environmental changes and to human choices, and find that the impact of environmental quality depends upon whether it manifests through agricultural yield or maximum (food-independent) survival rates. Human choices can complement or offset environmental effects: greater labor investments increase both population growth and well-being, and therefore can counteract lower agricultural yield, while fertility control decreases the growth rate but can increase or decrease well-being. Finally we establish equilibrium stability criteria, and argue that the potential for loss of local stability at low population growth rates could have important consequences for populations that suffer significant environmental or demographic shocks.

Socioeconomic inequalities in children's diet: the role of the home food environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Ranjit, Nalini; Wilkinson, Anna V; Lytle, Leslie M; Evans, Alexandra E; Saxton, Debra; Hoelscher, Deanna M

2015-07-27

It is well documented in the literature that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with lower consumption of healthy foods and that these differences in consumption patterns are influenced by neighborhood food environments. Less understood is the role that SES differences in physical and social aspects of the home food environment play in consumption patterns. Using data on 4th grade children from the 2009-2011 Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) study, we used mixed-effects regression models to test the magnitude of differences in the SPAN Health Eating Index (SHEI) by parental education as an indicator of SES, and the extent to which adjusting for measures of the home food environment, and measures of the neighborhood environment accounted for these SES differences. Small but significant differences in children’s SHEI by SES strata exist (-1.33 between highest and lowest SES categories, penvironment and neighborhood environment measures in this model eliminates these differences (-0.7, p=0.145). Home food environment explains a greater portion of the difference. Both social (mealtime structure) and physical aspects (food availability) of the home food environment are strongly associated with consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. Our findings suggest that modifiable parent behaviors at home can improve children’s eating habits and that the neighborhood may impact diet in ways other than through access to healthy food.

Ecological determinants of health: food and environment on human health.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Alice M L

2017-04-01

Human health and diseases are determined by many complex factors. Health threats from the human-animal-ecosystems interface (HAEI) and zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) impose an increasing risk continuously to public health, from those emerging pathogens transmitted through contact with animals, food, water and contaminated environments. Immense challenges forced on the ecological perspectives on food and the eco-environments, including aquaculture, agriculture and the entire food systems. Impacts of food and eco-environments on human health will be examined amongst the importance of human interventions for intended purposes in lowering the adverse effects on the biodiversity. The complexity of relevant conditions defined as factors contributing to the ecological determinants of health will be illuminated from different perspectives based on concepts, citations, examples and models, in conjunction with harmful consequential effects of human-induced disturbances to our environments and food systems, together with the burdens from ecosystem disruption, environmental hazards and loss of ecosystem functions. The eco-health literacy should be further promoting under the "One Health" vision, with "One World" concept under Ecological Public Health Model for sustaining our environments and the planet earth for all beings, which is coincidentally echoing Confucian's theory for the environmental ethics of ecological harmony.

Local public food strategies as a social innovation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ruge, Dorte; Mikkelsen, Bent Egberg

2013-01-01

for local farmers and food processors. At the same time, they may also offer opportunities to develop new educational and health-promoting links between the actors of public food systems, such as young people in schools, and farmers. This contribution to “quality of life” is often referred to as social...

Local fishing associations and environment authorities visit CERN

CERN Document Server

AUTHOR|(CDS)2099575

2016-01-01

Local fishing associations and Host-States environment authorities visited CERN on Thursday 21st April 2016. They discovered the efforts made by CERN and its Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) unit to control and limit the impact of the Laboratory's activities on natural environment, and more specifically local rivers.

Obesity and the Food Environment: Income and Ethnicity Differences Among People With Diabetes

Science.gov (United States)

Jones-Smith, Jessica C.; Karter, Andrew J.; Warton, E. Margaret; Kelly, Maggi; Kersten, Ellen; Moffet, Howard H.; Adler, Nancy; Schillinger, Dean; Laraia, Barbara A.

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE It is unknown whether any association between neighborhood food environment and obesity varies according to individual income and/or race/ethnicity. The objectives of this study were to test whether there was an association between food environments and obesity among adults with diabetes and whether this relationship differed according to individual income or race/ethnicity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Subjects (n = 16,057) were participants in the Diabetes Study of Northern California survey. Kernel density estimation was used to create a food environment score for each individual’s residence address that reflected the mix of healthful and unhealthful food vendors nearby. Logistic regression models estimated the association between the modeled food environment and obesity, controlling for confounders, and testing for interactions between food environment and race/ethnicity and income. RESULTS The authors found that more healthful food environments were associated with lower obesity in the highest income groups (incomes 301–600% and >600% of U.S. poverty line) among whites, Latinos, and Asians. The association was negative, but smaller and not statistically significant, among high-income blacks. On the contrary, a more healthful food environment was associated with higher obesity among participants in the lowest-income group (food environments may have different health implications when financial resources are severely constrained. PMID:23637355

ISS Local Environment Spectrometers (ISLES)

Science.gov (United States)

Krause, Linda Habash; Gilchrist, Brian E.

2014-01-01

In order to study the complex interactions between the space environment surrounding the ISS and the ISS surface materials, we propose to use lowcost, high-TRL plasma sensors on the ISS robotic arm to probe the ISS space environment. During many years of ISS operation, we have been able to condut effective (but not perfect) extravehicular activities (both human and robotic) within the perturbed local ISS space environment. Because of the complexity of the interaction between the ISS and the LEO space environment, there remain important questions, such as differential charging at solar panel junctions (the so-called "triple point" between conductor, dielectric, and space plasma), increased chemical contamination due to ISS surface charging and/or thruster activation, water dumps, etc, and "bootstrap" charging of insulating surfaces. Some compelling questions could synergistically draw upon a common sensor suite, which also leverages previous and current MSFC investments. Specific questions address ISS surface charging, plasma contactor plume expansion in a magnetized drifting plasma, and possible localized contamination effects across the ISS.

Local Staple Food Price Indices in the Age of Biofuels

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Molly E.

2012-01-01

In many poor, food insecure regions, agriculture is a primary source of income and farmers are reliant both on their own production and on purchasing food in the market to feed their families. Large local food price increases over a short time period can be indicative of a deteriorating food security situation and may be the consequence of weather-related food production declines, Dr can simply be the result of price transmission from the international commodity market. Food price indices developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are used to monitor food price trends at a global level, but largely reflect supply and demand conditions in export markets far from the places where the chronically food insecure live. A much better understanding of how local staple food prices in isolated regions such as West Africa that grow most of the food they eat to better understand the impact of global commodity market transformations on sensitive communities at the margin. This information will also enable improved strategies for these farmers who are extraordinarily sensitive to climate change impacts on agricultural growing conditions.

Culture, Environment, and Food to Prevent Vitamin A Deficiency ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

Culture, Environment, and Food to Prevent Vitamin A Deficiency. Book cover Culture, Environment, and Food to Prevent Vitamin A Deficiency. Auteur(s) : H.V. Kuhnlein and G.H. Pelto. Maison(s) d'édition : INFDC, IDRC. 1 janvier 1997. ISBN : Out of print. 220 pages. e-ISBN : 1552504409. Téléchargez le PDF · Téléchargez ...

Local and Sustainable Food Supply: The Role of European Retail Consumer Co-operatives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Martin Hingley

2012-03-01

Full Text Available  This paper investigates the rationale for local and sustainable food systems and retailer co-operatives as their entry points within local conditions. Emphasis is on localised food networks and connection between socially as well as environmentally sustainable production, distribution and consumption. Investigated is the premise that co-operative organisational structures, for reasons of their long-term socially responsible origins are at the forefront of development of local and sustainable food systems and are thereby in a position to offer a specific contribution to market development. Two key research questions are proposed: Firstly, is there a pre-determination of co-operatives to issues of sustainable and local food sourcing given the historical and practical context of their ethical/socially responsible and stakeholder-based business model? Secondly, do co-ops express support for re-localising food systems and what contribution do they make concerning sustainable food and their relationships with local food suppliers? The method of investigation is through a two country retailer co-operative sector analysis and comparison (Finland and Italy. The enquiry is qualitative and exploratory in nature in the form of an embedded, multiple case design. The paper makes practical and theoretical contribution to knowledge concerning interpretation of ‘localness’ in food, the role of co-operatives and the co-operative ethos in sustainable food systems and the development of the local food economy. Results of the study show a positive relationship between co-operative ethos and (social sustainability in local food, but the de-centralised nature of retailer co-operation also provides a barrier to replication of good practice.

The association between obesity and urban food environments.

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Bodor, J Nicholas; Rice, Janet C; Farley, Thomas A; Swalm, Chris M; Rose, Donald

2010-09-01

Several studies have examined associations between the food retail environment and obesity, though virtually no work has been done in the urban South, where obesity rates are among the highest in the country. This study assessed associations between access to food retail outlets and obesity in New Orleans. Data on individual characteristics and body weight were collected by telephone interviews from a random sample of adults (N = 3,925) living in New Orleans in 2004-2005. The neighborhood of each individual was geo-mapped by creating a 2-km buffer around the center point of the census tract in which they lived. Food retailer counts were created by summing the total number of each food store type and fast food establishment within this 2-km neighborhood. Hierarchical linear models assessed associations between access to food retailers and obesity status. After adjusting for individual characteristics, each additional supermarket in a respondent's neighborhood was associated with a reduced odds for obesity (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.88-0.99). Fast food restaurant (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02) and convenience store (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.02) access were each predictive of greater obesity odds. An individual's access to food stores and fast food restaurants may play a part in determining weight status. Future studies with longitudinal and experimental designs are needed to test whether modifications in the food environment may assist in the prevention of obesity.

Local foods and local markets: strategies to grow the local sector in the UK

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Georgina Holt

2005-05-01

Full Text Available L’intérêt pour une économie alimentaire alternative est de plus en plus marqué depuis une dizaine d’années. Le développement parallèle de travaux académiques et d’activités administrées par des organisations gouvernementales ou non-gouvernementales, conduit à un amalgame de théories et de pratiques diverses en matière de produits locaux. L’objectif de cet article est d’explorer les réseaux et les discours consernant la production et la consommation de produits locaux en Grande-Bretagne. L’analyse, entre autre fondée sur des interviews approfondies avec des représentants de l’industrie agro-alimentaire et d’organisations de base, révèle des differences dans le language et la conceptualisation du “local” qui influencent le rôle joué par les produits locaux aux niveaux économique et diététique. L’article s’achève sur l’importance et la priorité à donner aux politiques du secteur publique qui soutiennent les producteurs et entreprises de produits locaux, à la fois en milieu rural et urbain.Interest in an alternative food economy has been growing over the last decade. Parallel developments in academia and the activities of government and non-government organisations have led to a fusion of theory and practice under an umbrella of local food. The purpose of this article is to explore the networks and discourses that surround the production and consumption of local food in the UK. This is achieved through the analysis of a series of in-depth interviews with industry and grassroots organisations set against a background of consumer opinion deriving from focus groups. The analysis demonstrates that differences in the language and conceptualisation of local reveal different roles for local food in the economy and in the diet. The article concludes that policies to support public sector procurement through a hinterland of small-scale producer marketing and processing enterprises should be a priority in

Parental employment and work-family stress: Associations with family food environments

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Bauer, Katherine W.; Hearst, Mary O.; Escoto, Kamisha; Berge, Jerica M.; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne

2013-01-01

Parental employment provides many benefits to children's health. However, an increasing number of studies have observed associations between mothers' full-time employment and less healthful family food environments. Few studies have examined other ways in which parental employment may be associated with the family food environment, including the role of fathers' employment and parents' stress balancing work and home obligations. This study utilized data from Project F-EAT, a population-based study of a socio-demographically diverse sample of 3709 parents of adolescents living in a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States, to examine cross-sectional associations between mothers' and fathers' employment status and parents' work-life stress with multiple aspects of the family food environment. Among parents participating in Project F-EAT, 64% of fathers and 46% of mothers were full-time employed, while 25% of fathers and 37% of mothers were not employed. Results showed that full-time employed mothers reported fewer family meals, less frequent encouragement of their adolescents' healthful eating, lower fruit and vegetable intake, and less time spent on food preparation, compared to part-time and not-employed mothers, after adjusting for socio-demographics. Full-time employed fathers reported significantly fewer hours of food preparation; no other associations were seen between fathers' employment status and characteristics of the family food environment. In contrast, higher work-life stress among both parents was associated with less healthful family food environment characteristics including less frequent family meals and more frequent sugar-sweetened beverage and fast food consumption by parents. Among dual-parent families, taking into account the employment characteristics of the other parent did not substantially alter the relationships between work-life stress and family food environment characteristics. While parental employment is beneficial for many

Parental employment and work-family stress: associations with family food environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Bauer, Katherine W; Hearst, Mary O; Escoto, Kamisha; Berge, Jerica M; Neumark-Sztainer, Dianne

2012-08-01

Parental employment provides many benefits to children's health. However, an increasing number of studies have observed associations between mothers' full-time employment and less healthful family food environments. Few studies have examined other ways in which parental employment may be associated with the family food environment, including the role of fathers' employment and parents' stress balancing work and home obligations. This study utilized data from Project F-EAT, a population-based study of a socio-demographically diverse sample of 3709 parents of adolescents living in a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States, to examine cross-sectional associations between mothers' and fathers' employment status and parents' work-life stress with multiple aspects of the family food environment. Among parents participating in Project F-EAT, 64% of fathers and 46% of mothers were full-time employed, while 25% of fathers and 37% of mothers were not employed. Results showed that full-time employed mothers reported fewer family meals, less frequent encouragement of their adolescents' healthful eating, lower fruit and vegetable intake, and less time spent on food preparation, compared to part-time and not-employed mothers, after adjusting for socio-demographics. Full-time employed fathers reported significantly fewer hours of food preparation; no other associations were seen between fathers' employment status and characteristics of the family food environment. In contrast, higher work-life stress among both parents was associated with less healthful family food environment characteristics including less frequent family meals and more frequent sugar-sweetened beverage and fast food consumption by parents. Among dual-parent families, taking into account the employment characteristics of the other parent did not substantially alter the relationships between work-life stress and family food environment characteristics. While parental employment is beneficial for many

Detection of lead (pb and aluminum (Al metal as contaminant in food prepared by using locally manufactured cooked pots (Hala in Kosti City, Sudan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

EI Salah

2015-06-01

Full Text Available The objectives of this study are to assess the quantities of Aluminu m; lead released into the food from locally manufactured cooked pots (Aluminium pots in Kosti market. Seven types of pots (Pistons, Cartels, Kettles, Kettles + trays, Pepsi cans, Atmonia and Steel which is locally manufactured cooked pots (Hala were used. Amount of Al and Pb that leaked into the food from locally manufactured cooked pots were assessed by using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. The results were indicated that highly significance amount of Aluminum and lead which were leaked into the food that prepared by locally manufactured cooked pots (Hala.The analysis of urine for 10 selected randomly individuals that used locally manufactured cooked pots (Hala for preparation their food were indicated highly amount of Aluminum and Lead in their urine. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ije.v4i2.12621 International Journal of Environment Vol.4(2 2015: 19-26

Community context of food justice: reflections on a free local produce program in a New Orleans food desert

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Laura McKinney

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Food justice discourse has emerged partly in response to the critique of alternative food networks during the last decade, but its justice conceptualization tends to be too narrowly focused on food-related injustices rather than broader social injustices that shape food access and food sovereignty, a gap we address. Our analysis of a semi-experimental free local food program we administered in a New Orleans food desert demonstrates that several community context factors shape the residents’ access to a local food market in this neighborhood: fragmented social ties, digital and generational divides, perpetual infrastructural failure, and the location of the market within the neighborhood. We argue that food justice discourse needs to incorporate social and cultural community contexts in its operationalization of food access and sovereignty, especially regarding how the latter concept is defined and executed in practice.

Food Melt in Consumer Food Environments in Low-income Urban Neighborhoods.

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Trapl, Erika S; Pike, Stephanie N; Borawski, Elaine; Flocke, Susan A; Freedman, Darcy A; Walsh, Colleen C; Schneider, Christine; Yoder, Laura

2017-11-01

We systematically evaluated changes in availability, price, and quality of perishable food items from the beginning to the end of the month in lowincome, urban neighborhoods. The sample included grocery stores or supermarkets in Cleveland, Ohio, within neighborhoods with >30% of population receiving food assistance. We collected data for 2 sequential months during the first and fourth weeks of each month. Two coders evaluated stores, collecting measures of availability, price, and quality for 50 items. We examined difference in number and proportion of items available at the beginning of the month (BOM) to items remaining available at the end of the month (EOM), as well as quality and price of those items. Across 48 stores, availability at EOM was lower than BOM; as store size increased, reduction in availability (ie, food melt) was significantly (p Food melt differentially affects individuals in neighborhoods without grocery stores. Findings reveal composition of food environments is dynamic rather than static, influencing food-purchasing choices among lowincome consumers.

'McDonalds and KFC, it's never going to happen': the challenges of working with food outlets to tackle the obesogenic environment.

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Hanratty, Barbara; Milton, Beth; Ashton, Matthew; Whitehead, Margaret

2012-12-01

Food outlets may make an important contribution to an obesogenic environment. This study investigated barriers and facilitators to public health work with food outlets in disadvantaged areas. In-depth qualitative interviews with 36 directors, managers and public health service delivery staff in a coterminous primary care trust and local authority in northwest England. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method. Three interventions were available to engage with businesses; awards for premises that welcomed breastfeeding mothers or offered healthy menu options and local authority planning powers. Sensitivity to the potential conflict between activities that generate profit and those that promote health, led to compromises, such as awards for cafés that offer only one healthy option on an otherwise unhealthy menu. An absence of existing relationships with businesses and limited time were powerful disincentives to action, leading to greater engagement with public rather than private sector organizations. Hiring staff with commercial experience and incentives for businesses were identified as useful strategies, but seldom used. Encouraging food outlets to contribute to tackling the obesogenic environment is a major challenge for local public health teams that requires supportive national policies. Commitment to engage with the local public health service should be part of any national voluntary agreements with industry.

Children's food store, restaurant, and home food environments and their relationship with body mass index: a pilot study.

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Holsten, Joanna E; Compher, Charlene W

2012-01-01

This pilot research assessed the feasibility and utility of a study designed to examine the relationship between children's BMI and food store, restaurant, and home food environments. Home visits were conducted with sixth-grade children (N = 12). BMI z-scores were calculated with weight and height measurements. Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys evaluated children's food environments. The study protocol involved a feasible time duration, minimal missing data for primary variables, and participant satisfaction. Potential design problems included the homogeneous store environments and low restaurant exposure of the sample recruited from one school, and the adequacy of a single cross-sectional measure of the home environment.

Exploring the Role of the Food Environment on Food Shopping Patterns in Philadelphia, PA, USA: A Semiquantitative Comparison of Two Matched Neighborhood Groups

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Amy Hillier

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Increasing research has focused on the built food environment and nutrition-related outcomes, yet what constitutes a food environment and how this environment influences individual behavior still remain unclear. This study assesses whether travel mode and distance to food shopping venues differ among individuals in varying food environments and whether individual- and household-level factors are associated with food shopping patterns. Fifty neighbors who share a traditionally defined food environment (25 in an unfavorable environment and 25 in a favorable environment were surveyed using a mix of close- and open-ended survey questions. Food shopping patterns were mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS. Stores visited were beyond the 0.5-mile (805 meters radius traditionally used to represent the extent of an individual’s food environment in an urban area. We found no significant difference in shopping frequency or motivating factor behind store choice between the groups. No differences existed between the two groups for big food shopping trips. For small trips, individuals in the favorable food environment traveled shorter distances and were more likely to walk than drive. Socioeconomic status, including car ownership, education, and income influenced distance traveled. These findings highlight the complexities involved in the study and measurement of food environments.

Exploring the role of the food environment on food shopping patterns in Philadelphia, PA, USA: a semiquantitative comparison of two matched neighborhood groups.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirsch, Jana A; Hillier, Amy

2013-01-14

Increasing research has focused on the built food environment and nutrition-related outcomes, yet what constitutes a food environment and how this environment influences individual behavior still remain unclear. This study assesses whether travel mode and distance to food shopping venues differ among individuals in varying food environments and whether individual- and household-level factors are associated with food shopping patterns. Fifty neighbors who share a traditionally defined food environment (25 in an unfavorable environment and 25 in a favorable environment) were surveyed using a mix of close- and open-ended survey questions. Food shopping patterns were mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Stores visited were beyond the 0.5-mile (805 meters) radius traditionally used to represent the extent of an individual's food environment in an urban area. We found no significant difference in shopping frequency or motivating factor behind store choice between the groups. No differences existed between the two groups for big food shopping trips. For small trips, individuals in the favorable food environment traveled shorter distances and were more likely to walk than drive. Socioeconomic status, including car ownership, education, and income influenced distance traveled. These findings highlight the complexities involved in the study and measurement of food environments.

Consumer perception of sustainability attributes in organic and local food.

Science.gov (United States)

Annunziata, Azzurra; Angela, Mariani

2017-12-14

Although sustainable food consumption is gaining growing importance on the international agenda, research on this subject is still quite fragmented and most studies analyse single aspects of sustainable food consumption with particular reference to environmental sustainability. In addition, the literature highlights the need to take account of the strong heterogeneity of consumers in studying sustainable behaviour. Identifying consumer segments with common profiles, needs and values is essential for developing effective communication strategies to promote sustainability in food consumption. Consumer segmentation based on the perception of the sustainability attributes of organic and local products was realized using descriptive data collected through a consumer online survey in southern Italy (Campania). K-means cluster analysis was performed to identify different consumer segments based on consumer perception of sustainable attributes in organic and local food. Results confirm the support of consumers for organic and local food as sustainable alternative in food choices even if occasional buying behaviour of these products still predominates. In addition, our results show that an egoistic approach prevails among consumers, who seem to attach more value to attributes related to quality and health than to environmental, social and economic sustainability. Segmentation proves the existence of three consumer segments that differ significantly in terms of perception of sustainability attributes: a large segment of individuals who seem more egocentric oriented, an environmental sustainability oriented segment and a small segment that includes sustainability oriented consumers. The existence of different levels of sensitivity to sustainability attributes in organic and local food among the identified segments could be duly considered by policy makers and other institutions in promoting sustainable consumption patterns. Consumers in the first cluster could be educated

Socioeconomic inequalities in children’s diet: the role of the home food environment

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background It is well documented in the literature that low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with lower consumption of healthy foods and that these differences in consumption patterns are influenced by neighborhood food environments. Less understood is the role that SES differences in physical and social aspects of the home food environment play in consumption patterns. Methods Using data on 4th grade children from the 2009–2011 Texas School Physical Activity and Nutrition (SPAN) study, we used mixed-effects regression models to test the magnitude of differences in the SPAN Health Eating Index (SHEI) by parental education as an indicator of SES, and the extent to which adjusting for measures of the home food environment, and measures of the neighborhood environment accounted for these SES differences. Results Small but significant differences in children’s SHEI by SES strata exist (-1.33 between highest and lowest SES categories, pfood environment and neighborhood environment measures in this model eliminates these differences (-0.7, p=0.145). Home food environment explains a greater portion of the difference. Both social (mealtime structure) and physical aspects (food availability) of the home food environment are strongly associated with consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods. Conclusions Our findings suggest that modifiable parent behaviors at home can improve children’s eating habits and that the neighborhood may impact diet in ways other than through access to healthy food. PMID:26222785

Are Local Food Chains More Sustainable than Global Food Chains? Considerations for Assessment

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Gianluca Brunori

2016-05-01

Full Text Available This paper summarizes the main findings of the GLAMUR project which starts with an apparently simple question: is “local” more sustainable than “global”? Sustainability assessment is framed within a post-normal science perspective, advocating the integration of public deliberation and scientific research. The assessment spans 39 local, intermediate and global supply chain case studies across different commodities and countries. Assessment criteria cover environmental, economic, social, health and ethical sustainability dimensions. A closer view of the food system demonstrates a highly dynamic local–global continuum where actors, while adapting to a changing environment, establish multiple relations and animate several chain configurations. The evidence suggests caution when comparing “local” and “global” chains, especially when using the outcomes of the comparison in decision-making. Supply chains are analytical constructs that necessarily—and arbitrarily—are confined by system boundaries, isolating a set of elements from an interconnected whole. Even consolidated approaches, such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA, assess only a part of sustainability attributes, and the interpretation may be controversial. Many sustainability attributes are not yet measurable and “hard” methodologies need to be complemented by “soft” methodologies which are at least able to identify critical issues and trade-offs. Aware of these limitations, our research shows that comparing local and global chains, with the necessary caution, can help overcome a priori positions that so far have characterized the debate between “localists” and “globalists”. At firm level, comparison between “local” and “global” chains could be useful to identify best practices, benchmarks, critical points, and errors to avoid. As sustainability is not a status to achieve, but a never-ending process, comparison and deliberation can be the basis of a �

Sustainable diets: The interaction between food industry, nutrition, health and the environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Alsaffar, Ayten Aylin

2016-03-01

Everyday great amounts of food are produced, processed, transported by the food industry and consumed by us and these activities have direct impact on our health and the environment. The current food system has started causing strain on the Earth's natural resources and that is why sustainable food production systems are needed. This review article discusses the need for sustainable diets by exploring the interactions between the food industry, nutrition, health and the environment, which are strongly interconnected. The most common environmental issues in the food industry are related to food processing loss, food wastage and packaging; energy efficiency; transportation of foods; water consumption and waste management. Among the foods produced and processed, meat and meat products have the greatest environmental impact followed by the dairy products. Our eating patterns impact the environment, but the environment can impact dietary choices as well. The foods and drinks we consume may also affect our health. A healthy and sustainable diet would minimise the consumption of energy-dense and highly processed and packaged foods, include less animal-derived foods and more plant-based foods and encourage people not to exceed the recommended daily energy intake. Sustainable diets contribute to food and nutrition security, have low environmental impacts and promote healthy life for present and future generations. There is an urgent need to develop and promote strategies for sustainable diets; and governments, United Nations agencies, civil society, research organisations and the food industry should work together in achieving this. © The Author(s) 2016.

Food Self-Sufficiency across scales: How local can we go?

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Pradhan, Prajal; Lüdeke, Matthias K. B.; Reusser, Dominik E.; Kropp, Jürgen P.

2013-04-01

"Think global, act local" is a phrase often used in sustainability debates. Here, we explore the potential of regions to go for local supply in context of sustainable food consumption considering both the present state and the plausible future scenarios. We analyze data on the gridded crop calories production, the gridded livestock calories production, the gridded feed calories use and the gridded food calories consumption in 5' resolution. We derived these gridded data from various sources: Global Agro-ecological Zone (GAEZ v3.0), Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW), FAOSTAT, and Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project (GRUMP). For scenarios analysis, we considered changes in population, dietary patterns and possibility of obtaining the maximum potential yield. We investigate the food self-sufficiency multiple spatial scales. We start from the 5' resolution (i.e. around 10 km x 10 km in the equator) and look at 8 levels of aggregation ranging from the plausible lowest administrative level to the continental level. Results for the different spatial scales show that about 1.9 billion people live in the area of 5' resolution where enough calories can be produced to sustain their food consumption and the feed used. On the country level, about 4.4 billion population can be sustained without international food trade. For about 1 billion population from Asia and Africa, there is a need for cross-continental food trade. However, if we were able to achieve the maximum potential crop yield, about 2.6 billion population can be sustained within their living area of 5' resolution. Furthermore, Africa and Asia could be food self-sufficient by achieving their maximum potential crop yield and only round 630 million populations would be dependent on the international food trade. However, the food self-sufficiency status might differ under consideration of the future change in population, dietary patterns and climatic conditions. We provide an initial approach for investigating the

Measuring the Food Environment: A Systematic Technique for Characterizing Food Stores Using Display Counts

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Cassandra Miller

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Marketing research has documented the influence of in-store characteristics—such as the number and placement of display stands—on consumer purchases of a product. However, little information exists on this topic for key foods of interest to those studying the influence of environmental changes on dietary behavior. This study demonstrates a method for characterizing the food environment by measuring the number of separate displays of fruits, vegetables, and energy-dense snack foods (including chips, candies, and sodas and their proximity to cash registers in different store types. Observations in New Orleans stores (N=172 in 2007 and 2008 revealed significantly more displays of energy-dense snacks than of fruits and vegetables within all store types, especially supermarkets. Moreover, supermarkets had an average of 20 displays of energy-dense snacks within 1 meter of their cash registers, yet none of them had even a single display of fruits or vegetables near their cash registers. Measures of the number of separate display stands of key foods and their proximity to a cash register can be used by researchers to better characterize food stores and by policymakers to address improvements to the food environment.

Navigating the obesogenic environment: how psychological sensitivity to the food environment and self-regulatory competence are associated with adolescent unhealthy snacking.

Science.gov (United States)

Stok, F Marijn; De Vet, Emely; Wardle, Jane; Chu, Maria T; De Wit, John; De Ridder, Denise T D

2015-04-01

Living in an obesogenic environment may not affect all adolescents to the same extent, depending on their psychological sensitivity to the food environment and their self-regulatory competence. The purpose of the current study was to examine associations of these two factors with unhealthy snacking among adolescents. We also investigated whether self-regulatory competence could attenuate the negative effects of being sensitive to the food environment. A survey was completed by 11,392 European adolescents (10-17years old). The survey measured psychological sensitivity to the food environment, self-regulatory competence and self-reported unhealthy snack intake. Higher food environment sensitivity and lower self-regulatory competence were associated with more unhealthy snacking. The two factors also interacted, with self-regulatory competence attenuating the influence of high food environment sensitivity. Adolescents who are sensitive to the food environment reported higher unhealthy snack intake. More frequent use of self-regulation strategies on the other hand was associated with lower unhealthy snack intake. Moreover, self-regulatory competence was found to moderate the influence of psychological sensitivity to the food environment on unhealthy snacking, although the effect size was small. Fostering adolescents' self-regulatory competence can help enable them to better navigate the obesogenic environment. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neighborhood Disparities in the Restaurant Food Environment.

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Martinez-Donate, Ana P; Espino, Jennifer Valdivia; Meinen, Amy; Escaron, Anne L; Roubal, Anne; Nieto, Javier; Malecki, Kristen

2016-11-01

Restaurant meals account for a significant portion of the American diet. Investigating disparities in the restaurant food environment can inform targeted interventions to increase opportunities for healthy eating among those who need them most. To examine neighborhood disparities in restaurant density and the nutrition environment within restaurants among a statewide sample of Wisconsin households. Households (N = 259) were selected from the 2009-2010 Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW), a population-based survey of Wisconsin adults. Restaurants in the household neighborhood were enumerated and audited using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Restaurants (NEMS-R). Neighborhoods were defined as a 2- and 5-mile street-distance buffer around households in urban and non-urban areas, respectively. Adjusted linear regression models identified independent associations between sociodemographic household characteristics and neighborhood restaurant density and nutrition environment scores. On average, each neighborhood contained approximately 26 restaurants. On average, restaurants obtained 36.1% of the total nutrition environment points. After adjusting for household characteristics, higher restaurant density was associated with both younger and older household average age (P restaurant food environment in Wisconsin neighborhoods varies by age, race, and urbanicity, but offers ample room for improvement across socioeconomic groups and urbanicity levels. Future research must identify policy and environmental interventions to promote healthy eating in all restaurants, especially in young and/or rural neighborhoods in Wisconsin.

Decomposing Racial Disparities in Obesity Prevalence: Variations in Retail Food Environment.

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Singleton, Chelsea R; Affuso, Olivia; Sen, Bisakha

2016-03-01

Racial disparities in obesity exist at the individual and community levels. Retail food environment has been hypothesized to be associated with racial disparities in obesity prevalence. This study aimed to quantify how much food environment measures explain racial disparities in obesity at the county level. Data from 2009 to 2010 on 3,135 U.S. counties were extracted from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Environment Atlas and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and analyzed in 2013. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition was used to quantify the portion of the gap in adult obesity prevalence observed between counties with a high and low proportion of African-American residents is explained by food environment measures (e.g., proximity to grocery stores, per capita fast-food restaurants). Counties were considered to have a high African-American population if the percentage of African-American residents was >13.1%, which represents the 2010 U.S. Census national estimate of percentage African-American citizens. There were 665 counties (21%) classified as a high African-American county. The total gap in mean adult obesity prevalence between high and low African-American counties was found to be 3.35 percentage points (32.98% vs 29.63%). Retail food environment measures explained 13.81% of the gap in mean age-adjusted adult obesity prevalence. Retail food environment explains a proportion of the gap in adult obesity prevalence observed between counties with a high proportion of African-American residents and counties with a low proportion of African-American residents. Copyright © 2016 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Retail food environments research: Promising future with more work to be done.

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Fuller, Daniel; Engler-Stringer, Rachel; Muhajarine, Nazeem

2016-06-09

As members of the scientific committee for the Food Environments in Canada conference, we reflect on the current state of food environments research in Canada. We are very encouraged that the field is growing and there have been many collaborative efforts to link researchers in Canada, including the 2015 Food Environments in Canada Symposium and Workshop. We believe there are 5 key challenges the field will need to collectively address: theory and causality; replication and extension; consideration of rural, northern and vulnerable populations; policy analysis; and intervention research. In addressing the challenges, we look forward to working together to conduct more sophisticated, complex and community-driven food environments research in the future.

Effect of TV food advertising restriction on food environment for children in South Korea.

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Lee, Youngmi; Yoon, Jihyun; Chung, Sang-Jin; Lee, Soo-Kyung; Kim, Hyogyoo; Kim, Soyoung

2017-02-01

This study attempted to determine the effects of restrictions on television (TV) food advertising on children's food environments in South Korea. It examined changes that occurred in the marketing mix of food companies following enactment of those restrictions. An on-line survey was conducted with marketers or R&D managers of 108 food companies. A questionnaire was used to inquire about changes that occurred in Product, Place, Price and Promotion as a result of the restrictions placed on TV food advertising. Analysis was performed on the data collected from the responding 63 food companies (58.3%). The results of their answers showed that among the four marketing mix components the restrictions exerted relatively stronger effects on Product. Effects were stronger on companies that produced foods within the product categories of Energy-Dense and Nutrient-Poor foods (EDNP companies) in comparison with companies that did not (non-EDNP companies). The restrictions exerted positive effects on EDNP companies with respect to compliance with labeling requirements and reinforcement of nutritional contents examination, as well as changes to products such as reducing unhealthy ingredients and fortifying nutrients. Overall, the results revealed the possibility that restrictions on TV food advertising could improve children's food environments by encouraging EDNP companies to make favorable product changes. On the one hand, the results also found that some food companies attempted to bypass the regulations by changing marketing channels from TV to others and by reducing product serving sizes. Thus, future measures should be implemented to prevent food companies from bypassing regulations and to control children's exposure to marketing channels other than TV.

Comparison of the Availability and Cost of Foods Compatible With a Renal Diet Versus an Unrestricted Diet Using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey.

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Sullivan, Catherine M; Pencak, Julie A; Freedman, Darcy A; Huml, Anne M; León, Janeen B; Nemcek, Jeanette; Theurer, Jacqueline; Sehgal, Ashwini R

2017-05-01

Hemodialysis patients' ability to access food that is both compatible with a renal diet and affordable is affected by the local food environment. Comparisons of the availability and cost of food items suitable for the renal diet versus a typical unrestricted diet were completed using the standard Nutrition Environment Measures Survey and a renal diet-modified Nutrition Environment Measures Survey. Cross-sectional study. Twelve grocery stores in Northeast Ohio. Availability and cost of food items in 12 categories. The mean total number of food items available differed significantly (P ≤ .001) between the unrestricted diet (38.9 ± 4.5) and renal diet (32.2 ± 4.7). The mean total cost per serving did not differ significantly (P = 0.48) between the unrestricted diet ($5.67 ± 2.50) and renal diet ($5.76 ± 2.74). The availability of renal diet food items is significantly less than that of unrestricted diet food items, but there is no difference in the cost of items that are available in grocery stores. Further work is needed to determine how to improve the food environment for patients with chronic diseases. Copyright © 2017 National Kidney Foundation, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The home food environment of overweight gatekeepers in the Netherlands.

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Poelman, Maartje P; de Vet, Emely; Velema, Elizabeth; Seidell, Jacob C; Steenhuis, Ingrid H M

2015-07-01

The aim of the present study was to gain insight into (i) processed snack-food availability, (ii) processed snack-food salience and (iii) the size of dinnerware among households with overweight gatekeepers. Moreover, associations between gatekeepers' characteristics and in-home observations were determined. A cross-sectional observation of home food environments was conducted as part of a baseline measurement of a larger study. Home food environments of overweight and obese gatekeepers in the Netherlands. Household gatekeepers (n 278). Mean household size of the gatekeepers was 3.0 (SD 1.3) persons. Mean age of the gatekeepers was 45.7 (SD 9.2) years, 34.9% were overweight and 65.1% were obese. Of the gatekeepers, 20.9% had a low level of education and 42.7% had a high level of education. In 70% of the households, eight or more packages of processed snack foods were present. In 54% of the households, processed snack foods were stored close to non-processed food items and in 78% of households close to non-food items. In 33% of the households, processed snack foods were visible in the kitchen and in 15% of the households processed snack foods were visible in the living room. Of the dinnerware items, 14% (plates), 57% (glasses), 78% (dessert bowls), 67% (soup bowls) and 58% (mugs) were larger than the reference norms of the Netherlands Nutrition Centre Foundation. Older gatekeepers used significantly smaller dinnerware than younger gatekeepers. Environmental factors endorsing overconsumption are commonly present in the home environments of overweight people and could lead to unplanned eating or passive overconsumption.

How Segregation Makes Us Fat: Food Behaviors and Food Environment as Mediators of the Relationship Between Residential Segregation and Individual Body Mass Index

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Melody Goodman

2018-03-01

Full Text Available ObjectivesRacial residential segregation affects food landscapes that dictate residents’ food environments and is associated with obesity risk factors, including individual dietary patterns and behaviors. We examine if food behaviors and environments mediate the association between segregation and body mass index (BMI.MethodsNon-Hispanic Whites and Blacks living in the St. Louis and Kansas City metro regions from 2012 to 2013 were surveyed on dietary behaviors, food environment, and BMI (n = 1,412. These data were combined with the CDC’s modified retail food environment index and 2012 American Community Survey data to calculate racial segregation using various evenness and exposure indices. Multi-level mediation analyses were conducted to determine if dietary behavior and food environment mediate the association between racial residential segregation and individual BMI.ResultsThe positive association between racial segregation and individual BMI is partially mediated by dietary behaviors and fully mediated by food environments.ConclusionRacial segregation (evenness and exposure is associated with BMI, mediated by dietary behaviors and food environment. Elements of the food environment, which form the context for dietary behaviors, are potential targets for interventions to reduce obesity in residentially segregated areas.

Impacts of fast food and the food retail environment on overweight and obesity in China: a multilevel latent class cluster approach.

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Zhang, Xiaoyong; van der Lans, Ivo; Dagevos, Hans

2012-01-01

To simultaneously identify consumer segments based on individual-level consumption and community-level food retail environment data and to investigate whether the segments are associated with BMI and dietary knowledge in China. A multilevel latent class cluster model was applied to identify consumer segments based not only on their individual preferences for fast food, salty snack foods, and soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks, but also on the food retail environment at the community level. The data came from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) conducted in 2006 and two questionnaires for adults and communities were used. A total sample of 9788 adults living in 218 communities participated in the CHNS. We successfully identified four consumer segments. These four segments were embedded in two types of food retail environment: the saturated food retail environment and the deprived food retail environment. A three-factor solution was found for consumers' dietary knowledge. The four consumer segments were highly associated with consumers' dietary knowledge and a number of sociodemographic variables. The widespread discussion about the relationships between fast-food consumption and overweight/obesity is irrelevant for Chinese segments that do not have access to fast food. Factors that are most associated with segments with a higher BMI are consumers' (incorrect) dietary knowledge, the food retail environment and sociodemographics. The results provide valuable insight for policy interventions on reducing overweight/obesity in China. This study also indicates that despite the breathtaking changes in modern China, the impact of 'obesogenic' environments should not be assessed too strictly from a 'Western' perspective.

The changing food outlet distributions and local contextual factors in the United States.

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Chen, Hsin-Jen; Wang, Youfa

2014-01-16

Little is known about the dynamics of the food outlet distributions associated with local contextual factors in the U.S. This study examines the changes in food stores/services at the 5-digit Zip Code Tabulated Area (ZCTA5) level in the U.S., and assesses contextual factors associated with the changes. Data from 27,878 ZCTA5s in the contiguous United States without an extreme change in the number of 6 types of food stores/services (supermarkets, small-size grocery stores, convenience stores, fresh/specialty food markets, carry-out restaurants, and full-service restaurants) were used. ZCTA5s' contextual factors were from the 2000 Census. Numbers of food stores/services were derived from the Census Business Pattern databases. Linear regression models assessed contextual factors' influences (racial/ethnic compositions, poverty rate, urbanization level, and foreign-born population%) on 1-year changes in food stores/services during 2000-2001, adjusted for population size, total business change, and census regions. Small-size grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets increased more and convenience stores decreased more in Hispanic-predominant than other areas. Among supermarket-free places, new supermarkets were less likely to be introduced into black-predominant than white-predominant areas (odds ratio (OR) = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.30-0.92). However, among areas without the following type of store at baseline, supermarket (OR = 0.48 (0.33-0.70)), small-size grocery stores (OR = 1.32 (1.08-1.62)), and fresh/specialty food markets (OR = 0.70 (0.53-0.92)) were less likely to be introduced into areas of low foreign-born population than into areas of high foreign-born population. Higher poverty rate was associated with a greater decrease in supermarket, a less decrease in small-size grocery stores, and a less increase in carry-out restaurants (all p for trends restaurants than suburban areas. Local area characteristics affect 1-year changes in food

The association between organic school food policy and school food environment: results from an observational study in Danish schools.

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He, Chen; Mikkelsen, Bent E

2014-03-01

School food in many countries has become the object of change and innovation processes, not only in relation to policies for healthier eating but also in relation to policies for more sustainable food consumption and procurement. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible influence that organic food sourcing policies in Danish school meal systems may have on the development of healthier school food environments. The study was a cross-sectional analysis undertaken among 179 school food coordinators (SFCs) through a web-based questionnaire (WBQ) in a sample of Danish public primary schools. The 'organic' schools were compared to 'non-organic' schools. The questionnaire explored the attitudes, intentions/policies and actions in relation to organic and healthy foods served in the schools. Data indicates that 20 'organic' schools were associated with the indicators of healthier school environments, including adopting a Food and Nutrition Policy (FNP) in the school (p = .032), recommending children to eat healthily (p = .004). The study suggests that organic food policies in schools may have potential to support a healthier school food environment.

Competitiveness of Small Farms and Innovative Food Supply Chains: The Role of Food Hubs in Creating Sustainable Regional and Local Food Systems

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Giaime Berti

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Over the last decades, the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the conventional agri-food system has and continues to be contested within both academic and public institutions. For small farms, the unsustainability of the food system is even more serious; farms’ declining share of profit and the cost-price squeeze of commodity production has increased barriers to market access with the inevitable effect of agricultural abandonment. One way forward to respond to the existing conventional agri-food systems and to create a competitive or survival strategy for small family farms is the re-construction of regional and local agri-food systems, aligning with Kramer and Porter’s concept of shared value strategy. Through a critical literature review, this paper presents “regional and local food hubs” as innovative organizational arrangements capable of bridging structural holes in the agri-food markets between small producers and the consumers—individuals and families as well as big buyers. Food hubs respond to a supply chain (or supply network organizational strategy aiming at re-territorialising the agri-food systems through the construction of what in the economic literature are defined as values-based food supply chains.

Monitoring the impacts of trade agreements on food environments.

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Friel, S; Hattersley, L; Snowdon, W; Thow, A-M; Lobstein, T; Sanders, D; Barquera, S; Mohan, S; Hawkes, C; Kelly, B; Kumanyika, S; L'Abbe, M; Lee, A; Ma, J; Macmullan, J; Monteiro, C; Neal, B; Rayner, M; Sacks, G; Swinburn, B; Vandevijvere, S; Walker, C

2013-10-01

The liberalization of international trade and foreign direct investment through multilateral, regional and bilateral agreements has had profound implications for the structure and nature of food systems, and therefore, for the availability, nutritional quality, accessibility, price and promotion of foods in different locations. Public health attention has only relatively recently turned to the links between trade and investment agreements, diets and health, and there is currently no systematic monitoring of this area. This paper reviews the available evidence on the links between trade agreements, food environments and diets from an obesity and non-communicable disease (NCD) perspective. Based on the key issues identified through the review, the paper outlines an approach for monitoring the potential impact of trade agreements on food environments and obesity/NCD risks. The proposed monitoring approach encompasses a set of guiding principles, recommended procedures for data collection and analysis, and quantifiable 'minimal', 'expanded' and 'optimal' measurement indicators to be tailored to national priorities, capacity and resources. Formal risk assessment processes of existing and evolving trade and investment agreements, which focus on their impacts on food environments will help inform the development of healthy trade policy, strengthen domestic nutrition and health policy space and ultimately protect population nutrition. © 2013 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

Worksite environment physical activity and healthy food choices: measurement of the worksite food and physical activity environment at four metropolitan bus garages

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Gerlach Anne F

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The present research describes a measure of the worksite environment for food, physical activity and weight management. The worksite environment measure (WEM instrument was developed for the Route H Study, a worksite environmental intervention for weight gain prevention in four metro transit bus garages in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Methods Two trained raters visited each of the four bus garages and independently completed the WEM. Food, physical activity and weight management-related items were observed and recorded on a structured form. Inter-rater reliability was computed at the item level using a simple percentage agreement. Results The WEM showed high inter-rater reliability for the number and presence of food-related items. All garages had vending machines, microwaves and refrigerators. Assessment of the physical activity environment yielded similar reliability for the number and presence/absence of fitness items. Each garage had a fitness room (average of 4.3 items of fitness equipment. All garages had at least one stationary bike and treadmill. Three garages had at least one weighing scale available. There were no designated walking areas inside or outside. There were on average Conclusion The WEM is a reliable measure of the worksite nutrition, physical activity, and weight management environment that can be used to assess changes in the work environment.

Factors Constraining Local Food Crop Production in Indonesia: Experiences from Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta Special Province

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RADEN RIJANTA

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Local food crops are believed to be important alternatives in facing the problems of continuously growing price of food stuff worldwide. There has been a strong bias in national agricultural development policy towards the production of rice as staple food in Indonesia. Local food crops have been neglected in the agricultural development policy in the last 50 years, leading to the dependency on imported commodities and creating a vulnerability in the national food security. This paper aims at assessing the factors constraining local food production in Indonesia based on empirical experiences drawn from a research in Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta Province. The government of Kulon Progo Regency has declared its commitment in the development of local food commodities as a part of its agricultural development policy, as it is mentioned in the long-term and medium-term development planning documents. There is also a head regency decree mandating the use of local food commodities in any official events organized by the government organisations. The research shows that there are at least six policy-related problems and nine technical factors constraining local food crops production in the regency. Some of the policy-related and structural factors hampering the production of local food crops consist of (1 long-term policy biases towards rice, (2 strong biases on rice diet in the community, (3 difficulties in linking policy to practices, (4 lack of information on availability of local food crops across the regency and (5 external threat from the readily available instant food on local market and (6 past contra-productive policy to the production of local food crops. The technical factors constraining local food production comprises (1 inferiority of the food stuff versus the instantly prepared food, (2 difficulty in preparation and risk of contagion of some crops, lack of technology for processing, (3 continuity of supply (some crops are seasonally

Is Living near Healthier Food Stores Associated with Better Food Intake in Regional Australia?

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Moayyed, Hamid; Kelly, Bridget; Feng, Xiaoqi; Flood, Victoria

2017-08-07

High prevalence of obesity and non-communicable diseases is a global public health problem, in which the quality of food environments is thought to play an important role. Current scientific evidence is not consistent regarding the impact of food environments on diet. The relationship between local food environments and diet quality was assessed across 10 Australian suburbs, using Australian-based indices devised to measure the two parameters. Data of dietary habits from the participants was gathered using a short questionnaire. The suburbs' Food Environment Score (higher being healthier) was associated with higher consumption of fruit (χ² (40, 230) = 58.8, p = 0.04), and vegetables (χ² (40, 230) = 81.3, p = 0.03). The Food Environment Score identified a significant positive correlation with four of the diet scores: individual total diet score (r s = 0.30, p food score (r s = 0.15, p Food Environment Index, higher being unhealthier) showed a significant association with higher consumption of salty snacks (χ² (24, 230) = 43.9, p = 0.04). Food environments dominated by food outlets considered as 'healthier' were associated with healthier population food intakes, as indicated by a higher consumption of fruit, vegetables, and water, as well as a lower consumption of junk food, salty snacks, and sugary drinks. This association suggests that healthier diet quality is associated with healthier food environments in regional Australia.

The community and consumer food environment and children's diet: a systematic review.

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Engler-Stringer, Rachel; Le, Ha; Gerrard, Angela; Muhajarine, Nazeem

2014-05-29

While there is a growing body of research on food environments for children, there has not been a published comprehensive review to date evaluating food environments outside the home and school and their relationship with diet in children. The purpose of this paper is to review evidence on the influence of the community and consumer nutrition environments on the diet of children under the age of 18 years. Our search strategy included a combination of both subject heading searching as well as natural language, free-text searching. We searched nine databases (MEDLINE, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, Scopus, ProQuest Public Health, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, and GEOBASE) for papers published between 1995 and July 2013. Study designs were included if they were empirically-based, published scholarly research articles, were focused on children as the population of interest, fit within the previously mentioned date range, included at least one diet outcome, and exposures within the community nutrition environment (e.g., location and accessibility of food outlets), and consumer nutrition environment (e.g., price, promotion, and placement of food choices). After applying exclusion and inclusion criteria, a total of 26 articles were included in our review. The vast majority of the studies were cross-sectional in design, except for two articles reporting on longitudinal studies. The food environment exposure(s) included aspects of the community nutrition environments, except for three that focused on the consumer nutrition environment. The community nutrition environment characterization most often used Geographic Information Systems to geolocate participants' homes (and/or schools) and then one or more types of food outlets in relation to these. The children included were all of school age. Twenty-two out of 26 studies showed at least one positive association between the food environment exposure and diet outcome. Four studies reported only null associations. This

Changes in School Competitive Food Environments after a Health Promotion Campaign

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Green, Sarah H.; Mallya, Giridhar; Brensinger, Colleen; Tierney, Ann; Glanz, Karen

2018-01-01

Background: Schools can reduce student access to competitive foods and influence healthy food choices by improving the school nutrition environment. This study describes changes in competitive nutrition environments in 100 K-8 schools participating in the Philadelphia Campaign for Healthier Schools. Methods: Interviews with school staff were used…

Evaluation of carbon-14 (C14) levels of terrestrial and marine food products of the environment of the site of Cogema La Hague

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-04-01

This evaluation has for object to inform about the levels in carbon 14 in the environment of the factories of La Hague. Two sectors were differentiated on one hand the terrestrial environment, and on the other hand the marine environment. The investigations concerned first and foremost food products stemming as the vegetable culture (vegetables) or individual breeding (milk, eggs) but also foodstuffs stemming from the local agriculture (cereal). In touch with the second sector, the marine environment, the sampling concerned the accessible products of the sea by all and those locally marketed (fishes, molluscs, shellfishes). The different results are presented in tables. (N.C.)

Reduced-Item Food Audits Based on the Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys.

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Partington, Susan N; Menzies, Tim J; Colburn, Trina A; Saelens, Brian E; Glanz, Karen

2015-10-01

The community food environment may contribute to obesity by influencing food choice. Store and restaurant audits are increasingly common methods for assessing food environments, but are time consuming and costly. A valid, reliable brief measurement tool is needed. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate reduced-item food environment audit tools for stores and restaurants. Nutrition Environment Measures Surveys for stores (NEMS-S) and restaurants (NEMS-R) were completed in 820 stores and 1,795 restaurants in West Virginia, San Diego, and Seattle. Data mining techniques (correlation-based feature selection and linear regression) were used to identify survey items highly correlated to total survey scores and produce reduced-item audit tools that were subsequently validated against full NEMS surveys. Regression coefficients were used as weights that were applied to reduced-item tool items to generate comparable scores to full NEMS surveys. Data were collected and analyzed in 2008-2013. The reduced-item tools included eight items for grocery, ten for convenience, seven for variety, and five for other stores; and 16 items for sit-down, 14 for fast casual, 19 for fast food, and 13 for specialty restaurants-10% of the full NEMS-S and 25% of the full NEMS-R. There were no significant differences in median scores for varying types of retail food outlets when compared to the full survey scores. Median in-store audit time was reduced 25%-50%. Reduced-item audit tools can reduce the burden and complexity of large-scale or repeated assessments of the retail food environment without compromising measurement quality. Copyright © 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Investigating How to Align Schools' Marketing Environments With Federal Standards for Competitive Foods.

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Polacsek, Michele; O'Brien, Liam M; Pratt, Elizabeth; Whatley-Blum, Janet; Adler, Sabrina

2017-03-01

Limiting food and beverage marketing to children is a promising approach to influence children's nutrition behavior. School-based marketing influences nutrition behavior and studies have consistently found marketing for nonnutritious foods and beverages in schools. No studies have examined the resources necessary to align school marketing environments with federal school nutrition standards. The purpose of this study was to determine how to improve school marketing environments so that they align with new federal competitive food nutrition standards. We assessed food marketing environments in 3 Portland, Maine schools using the Food and Beverage Marketing Survey (FBMS) and provided technical assistance to bring their marketing environments into conformity with the federal competitive food regulations, tracking resources and strategies for marketing removal. Noncompliant marketing was significantly reduced pre- to postintervention. Intervention strategies were facilitated by the School Health Coordinator and school-based wellness teams. Low monetary resources were required to remove marketing not compliant with federal nutrition standards for foods sold in schools. Several key challenges remain to sustain efforts. This study provides timely information for policymakers to support crafting policies that address the realities of school nutrition environments and universal enforcement challenges. © 2017, American School Health Association.

Food Environment in Secondary Schools: À La Carte, Vending Machines, and Food Policies and Practices

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French, Simone A.; Story, Mary; Fulkerson, Jayne A.; Gerlach, Anne Faricy

2003-01-01

Objectives. This study described the food environment in 20 Minnesota secondary schools. Methods. Data were collected on school food policies and the availability and nutritional content of foods in school à la carte (ALC) areas and vending machines (VMs). Results. Approximately 36% and 35% of foods in ALC areas and in VMs, respectively, met the lower-fat criterion (≤ 5.5 fat grams/serving). The chips/crackers category constituted the largest share of ALC foods (11.5%). The median number of VMs per school was 12 (4 soft drink, 2 snack, 5 other). Few school food policies were reported. Conclusions. The availability of healthful foods and beverages in schools as well as school food policies that foster healthful food choices among students needs greater attention. PMID:12835203

Changing the food environment: the French experience.

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Chauliac, Michel; Hercberg, Serge

2012-07-01

The French National Nutrition and Health Program was launched in 2001. To achieve its objectives, 2 main preventive strategies were identified: 1) provide information and education to help individuals make healthy food and physical activity choices; and 2) improve the food and physical environment so that making healthy choices is easier. School regulations have been established to improve the nutritional quality of meals served to children and adolescents, and vending machines have been banned. Since 2007, companies in France's food industry have had the option of signing the national government's "Charte d'engagement volontaire de progrès nutritionnel" (charter of commitments to nutritional improvements) which aims to benefit all consumers. A standard reference document, developed by public authorities as the basis for decisions made by a committee of experts in the food industry, aims to validate the voluntary commitments made by companies to improve the nutrient content of the foods they produce. There is strict follow-up. A Food Quality Observatory was created in 2009 to monitor the nutrient quality of the food supply in France. Various results show the positive impact of these actions.

Characterising food environment exposure at home, at work, and along commuting journeys using data on adults in the UK.

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Burgoine, Thomas; Monsivais, Pablo

2013-06-27

Socio-ecological models of behaviour suggest that dietary behaviours are potentially shaped by exposure to the food environment ('foodscape'). Research on associations between the foodscape and diet and health has largely focussed on foodscapes around the home, despite recognition that non-home environments are likely to be important in a more complete assessment of foodscape exposure. This paper characterises and describes foodscape exposure of different types, at home, at work, and along commuting routes for a sample of working adults in Cambridgeshire, UK. Home and work locations, and transport habits for 2,696 adults aged 29-60 were drawn from the Fenland Study, UK. Food outlet locations were obtained from local councils and classified by type - we focus on convenience stores, restaurants, supermarkets and takeaway food outlets. Density of and proximity to food outlets was characterised at home and work. Commuting routes were modelled based on the shortest street network distance between home and work, with exposure (counts of food outlets) that accounted for travel mode and frequency. We describe these three domains of food environment exposure using descriptive and inferential statistics. For all types of food outlet, we found very different foodscapes around homes and workplaces (with overall outlet exposure at work 125% higher), as well as a potentially substantial exposure contribution from commuting routes. On average, work and commuting environments each contributed to foodscape exposure at least equally to residential neighbourhoods, which only accounted for roughly 30% of total exposure. Furthermore, for participants with highest overall exposure to takeaway food outlets, workplaces accounted for most of the exposure. Levels of relative exposure between home, work and commuting environments were poorly correlated. Relying solely on residential neighbourhood characterisation greatly underestimated total foodscape exposure in this sample, with levels of

Local French Food Initiatives in Practice: The Emergence of a Social Movement

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Angela Giovanangeli

2013-07-01

Full Text Available This article analyses the development of local food systems from a social movement perspective. It examines the case study of a farm market located in France and considers whether and how local initiatives in food distribution can be viewed as a social movement, using social theory as the conceptual framework.

The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Swinburn, Boyd A; Sacks, Gary; Hall, Kevin D; McPherson, Klim; Finegood, Diane T; Moodie, Marjory L; Gortmaker, Steven L

2011-08-27

The simultaneous increases in obesity in almost all countries seem to be driven mainly by changes in the global food system, which is producing more processed, affordable, and effectively marketed food than ever before. This passive overconsumption of energy leading to obesity is a predictable outcome of market economies predicated on consumption-based growth. The global food system drivers interact with local environmental factors to create a wide variation in obesity prevalence between populations. Within populations, the interactions between environmental and individual factors, including genetic makeup, explain variability in body size between individuals. However, even with this individual variation, the epidemic has predictable patterns in subpopulations. In low-income countries, obesity mostly affects middle-aged adults (especially women) from wealthy, urban environments; whereas in high-income countries it affects both sexes and all ages, but is disproportionately greater in disadvantaged groups. Unlike other major causes of preventable death and disability, such as tobacco use, injuries, and infectious diseases, there are no exemplar populations in which the obesity epidemic has been reversed by public health measures. This absence increases the urgency for evidence-creating policy action, with a priority on reduction of the supply-side drivers. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Local concentration of fast-food outlets is associated with poor nutrition and obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Kruger, Daniel J; Greenberg, Emily; Murphy, Jillian B; DiFazio, Lindsay A; Youra, Kathryn R

2014-01-01

We investigated the relationship of the local availability of fast-food restaurant locations with diet and obesity. We geocoded addresses of survey respondents and fast-food restaurant locations to assess the association between the local concentration of fast-food outlets, BMI, and fruit and vegetable consumption. The survey was conducted in Genesee County, Michigan. There were 1345 individuals included in this analysis, and the response rate was 25%. The Speak to Your Health! Community Survey included fruit and vegetable consumption items from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, height, weight, and demographics. We used ArcGIS to map fast-food outlets and survey respondents. Stepwise linear regressions identified unique predictors of body mass index (BMI) and fruit and vegetable consumption. Survey respondents had 8 ± 7 fast-food outlets within 2 miles of their home. Individuals living in close proximity to fast-food restaurants had higher BMIs t(1342) = 3.21, p food availability, which may constrain the success of nutrition promotion efforts. Efforts to decrease the local availability of unhealthy foods as well as programs to help consumers identify strategies for obtaining healthy meals at fast-food outlets may improve health outcomes.

Magpies can use local cues to retrieve their food caches.

Science.gov (United States)

Feenders, Gesa; Smulders, Tom V

2011-03-01

Much importance has been placed on the use of spatial cues by food-hoarding birds in the retrieval of their caches. In this study, we investigate whether food-hoarding birds can be trained to use local cues ("beacons") in their cache retrieval. We test magpies (Pica pica) in an active hoarding-retrieval paradigm, where local cues are always reliable, while spatial cues are not. Our results show that the birds use the local cues to retrieve their caches, even when occasionally contradicting spatial information is available. The design of our study does not allow us to test rigorously whether the birds prefer using local over spatial cues, nor to investigate the process through which they learn to use local cues. We furthermore provide evidence that magpies develop landmark preferences, which improve their retrieval accuracy. Our findings support the hypothesis that birds are flexible in their use of memory information, using a combination of the most reliable or salient information to retrieve their caches. © Springer-Verlag 2010

[Food poisoning--importance of international perspective].

Science.gov (United States)

Nishibuchi, Mitsuaki

2012-08-01

It is important to obtain the information on food security in the countries other than Japan since more than 60 % of the food consumed come from these countries. Food security is now considered as a global issue. A global trend persuading us to provide safe food to humans is based on the concept of human security development associated with a sense of human mission to sustain one's life. Another global tendency pushing us to secure safety and hygiene of food is driven by the economic pressure coming from the rules in international trade established by Codex Committee under FAO/WHO. In contrast to these trends under globalization requesting safe and hygienic food, food habits based on tradition or religion are maintained locally in various parts of the world. These local habits include eating raw or improperly cooked foods, which may become a risk of being exposed to food poisoning pathogens. This issue may be adequately solved by a risk assessment approach based on the concept of appropriate level of protection (ALOP). Like or not, people in some local areas live in the unhygienic environment where they are unintentionally and frequently exposed to enteric pathogens or immunologically cross-reacting microorganisms through which they may acquire specific immunity to the pathogens and escape from infection by the pathogens. There are therefore many areas in the world where people understand the necessity to provide safe food at the international level (globalization) but actually consume food in varying hygienic conditions from area to area due in part to traditional food habits or living environments (localization); we call this situation as glocalization (global+local).

Impacts of fast food and food retail environment on overweight and obesity in China: a multilevel latent class cluster approach

OpenAIRE

Zhang XiaoYong, Xiaoyong; Lans, van der, I.A.; Dagevos, H.

2012-01-01

Objective To simultaneously identify consumer segments based on individual-level consumption and community-level food retail environment data and to investigate whether the segments are associated with BMI and dietary knowledge in China. Design A multilevel latent class cluster model was applied to identify consumer segments based not only on their individual preferences for fast food, salty snack foods, and soft drinks and sugared fruit drinks, but also on the food retail environment at the ...

The changing food outlet distributions and local contextual factors in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

2014-01-01

-service and carry-out restaurants than suburban areas. Conclusions Local area characteristics affect 1-year changes in food environment in the U.S. Hispanic population was associated with more food stores/services capable of supplying fresh food items. Black-predominant and poverty-afflicted areas had a greater decrease in supermarkets. Full-service and carry-out restaurants increased more in urban than suburban areas. Foreign-born population density was associated with introduction of grocery stores and fresh/specialty food markets into the areas. PMID:24433323

Local Foods in Maryland Schools and Implications for Extension: Findings from Schools and Farmers

Science.gov (United States)

Oberholtzer, Lydia; Hanson, James C.; Brust, Gerald; Dimitri, Carolyn; Richman, Nessa

2012-01-01

This article describes results from a study examining the supply chain for local foods in Maryland school meals, the barriers and opportunities for increasing local foods in schools, and the development of Extension efforts to meet the needs identified. Interviews and surveys were administered with stakeholders, including farmers and food service…

Local food in European supply chains: reconnection and electronic networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Georgina Holt

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Après une présentation du marché des produits locaux/localisés en Grande Bretagne, ainsi qu’une définition du concept en fonction des circuits de distribution courts, de l’agriculture biologique et du commerce équitable, cet article se fonde sur des études de cas, issus de projets de recherche européens, pour identifier des différents types de réseaux concernés par les concept de produit locaux durables. Les habitudes historiques concernant l’achat des produits alimentaires jouent ici un rôle central et l’article observe l’équilibre entre les composants historiques, sociaux et environnementaux des produits locaux/localisés. A partir de ces terrains de recherche et de ces expériences il s’est avéré possible de déterminer différentes compréhensions de « produits locaux » en relation avec le concept de « distance alimentaire/ food miles ». En se référant à six cas donnés, cet article souligne l’importance des systèmes localisés en matière de durabilité alimentaire, et met en valeur le poids des qualités humaines et sociales dans la balance commerciale.After giving an overview of the market for local food in the UK, as well as a definition of the concept in relation to short supply chains, organic agriculture and fair trade, the article draws on cases encountered through EC-funded research and networking to identify different types of network concerned with the concept of sustaining local food. Historical uses of shopping habits play here a central role and the article observes the balance between historical, social and environmental components of local food. From these researches and experiences, it has been possible to demonstrate a range of understandings in relation to the concept of ‘food miles’. With reference to six cases, the article underlines the importance of local food systems within food sustainability, and highlights the weight of human and social qualities in the market balance.

Global effects of local food-production crises: a virtual water perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Tamea, Stefania; Laio, Francesco; Ridolfi, Luca

2016-01-25

By importing food and agricultural goods, countries cope with the heterogeneous global water distribution and often rely on water resources available abroad. The virtual displacement of the water used to produce such goods (known as virtual water) connects together, in a global water system, all countries participating to the international trade network. Local food-production crises, having social, economic or environmental origin, propagate in this network, modifying the virtual water trade and perturbing local and global food availability, quantified in terms of virtual water. We analyze here the possible effects of local crises by developing a new propagation model, parsimonious but grounded on data-based and statistically-verified assumptions, whose effectiveness is proved on the Argentinean crisis in 2008-09. The model serves as the basis to propose indicators of crisis impact and country vulnerability to external food-production crises, which highlight that countries with largest water resources have the highest impact on the international trade, and that not only water-scarce but also wealthy and globalized countries are among the most vulnerable to external crises. The temporal analysis reveals that global average vulnerability has increased over time and that stronger effects of crises are now found in countries with low food (and water) availability.

Preferred Healthy Food Nudges, Food Store Environments, and Customer Dietary Practices in 2 Low-Income Southern Communities.

Science.gov (United States)

Jilcott Pitts, Stephanie B; Wu, Qiang; Sharpe, Patricia A; Rafferty, Ann P; Elbel, Brian; Ammerman, Alice S; Payne, Collin R; Hopping, Beth N; McGuirt, Jared T; Wall-Bassett, Elizabeth D

To examine how food store environments can promote healthful eating, including (1) preferences for a variety of behavioral economics strategies to promote healthful food purchases, and (2) the cross-sectional association between the primary food store where participants reported shopping, dietary behaviors, and body mass index. Intercept survey participants (n = 342) from 2 midsized eastern North Carolina communities completed questionnaires regarding preferred behavioral economics strategies, the primary food store at which they shopped, and consumption of fruits, vegetables, and sugary beverages. Frequently selected behavioral economic strategies included: (1) a token and reward system for fruit and vegetable purchases; and (2) price discounts on healthful foods and beverages. There was a significant association between the primary food store and consumption of fruits and vegetables (P = .005) and sugary beverages (P = .02). Future studies should examine associations between elements of the in-store food environment, purchases, and consumption. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Optimal dietary patterns designed from local foods to achieve maternal nutritional goals.

Science.gov (United States)

Raymond, Jofrey; Kassim, Neema; Rose, Jerman W; Agaba, Morris

2018-04-04

Achieving nutritional requirements for pregnant and lactating mothers in rural households while maintaining the intake of local and culture-specific foods can be a difficult task. Deploying a linear goal programming approach can effectively generate optimal dietary patterns that incorporate local and culturally acceptable diets. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether a realistic and affordable diet that achieves nutritional goals for rural pregnant and lactating women can be formulated from locally available foods in Tanzania. A cross sectional study was conducted to assess dietary intakes of 150 pregnant and lactating women using a weighed dietary record (WDR), 24 h dietary recalls and a 7-days food record. A market survey was also carried out to estimate the cost per 100 g of edible portion of foods that are frequently consumed in the study population. Dietary survey and market data were then used to define linear programming (LP) model parameters for diet optimisation. All LP analyses were done using linear program solver to generate optimal dietary patterns. Our findings showed that optimal dietary patterns designed from locally available foods would improve dietary adequacy for 15 and 19 selected nutrients in pregnant and lactating women, respectively, but inadequacies remained for iron, zinc, folate, pantothenic acid, and vitamin E, indicating that these are problem nutrients (nutrients that did not achieve 100% of their RNIs in optimised diets) in the study population. These findings suggest that optimal use of local foods can improve dietary adequacy for rural pregnant and lactating women aged 19-50 years. However, additional cost-effective interventions are needed to ensure adequate intakes for the identified problem nutrients.

School Food Environment of Charter Schools in St. Louis

Science.gov (United States)

Linsenmeyer, Whitney; Kelly, Patrick; Jenkins, Steve; Mattfeldt-Berman, Mildred

2013-01-01

Purpose/Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the school food environment of charter schools in Saint Louis, Missouri. The objectives were to: (1) describe the participation of charter schools in the National School Lunch Program and (2) describe the prevalence of competitive foods in charter schools. Methods: School administrators…

Quantifying parental preferences for interventions designed to improve home food preparation and home food environments during early childhood.

Science.gov (United States)

Virudachalam, Senbagam; Chung, Paul J; Faerber, Jennifer A; Pian, Timothy M; Thomas, Karen; Feudtner, Chris

2016-03-01

Though preparing healthy food at home is a critical health promotion habit, few interventions have aimed to improve parental cooking skills and behaviors. We sought to understand parents' preferences and priorities regarding interventions to improve home food preparation practices and home food environments during early childhood. We administered a discrete choice experiment using maximum difference scaling. Eighty English-speaking parents of healthy 1-4 year-old children rated the relative importance of potential attributes of interventions to improve home food preparation practices and home food environments. We performed latent class analysis to identify subgroups of parents with similar preferences and tested for differences between the subgroups. Participants were mostly white or black 21-45 year-old women whose prevalence of overweight/obesity mirrored the general population. Latent class analysis revealed three distinct groups of parental preferences for intervention content: a healthy cooking group, focused on nutrition and cooking healthier food; a child persuasion group, focused on convincing toddlers to eat home-cooked food; and a creative cooking group, focused on cooking without recipes, meal planning, and time-saving strategies. Younger, lower income, 1-parent households comprised the healthy cooking group, while older, higher income, 2-parent households comprised the creative cooking group (p cooked dinner regularly, unlike the other two groups (p food preparation practices. Such interventions are important for creating healthier home food environments and preventing obesity starting from early childhood. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agrochemicals: fate in food and the environment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-01-01

At the conference 47 papers were presented of which 32 were included in INIS. The papers dealt with the use of tracer techniques for monitoring the metabolism, toxicity, degradation and accumulation of pesticides and fertilizers in the agricultural environment, aquatic ecosystems, soils and food

The impact of urbanization on the community food environment in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yang; Xue, Hong; Wang, Huijun; Su, Chang; Du, Shufa; Wang, Youfa

2017-05-01

Research on how urbanization has influenced the food environment in China is limited. The study aimed to examine the impact of urbanization on the food environment in China. Longitudinal data collected during 1989-2009 from the China Health and Nutrition Survey were used, which covered 9 provinces in China. Urbanicity index (0-10) was assessed using an urbanicity scale. Final analyses included 216 communities. Random-effect models were used in analyses. Urbanization (higher urbanicity index) increased the odds of having fast food restaurants (OR=2.78, 95% CI: 2.18-3.54) and other indoor restaurants (OR=2.93, 95% CI: 2.28-3.76) within the community, the odds of having supermarkets (OR=2.43, 95% CI: 2.04-2.89) and free markets (OR=2.56, 95% CI: 1.77-3.70) within 30 minutes' bus ride from the community. Food prices for apples (β=0.06, 95% CI: 0.04-0.08) and lean pork (β =0.02, 95% CI: 0.01-0.03) increased with urbanicity, while prices for other food did not. Urbanicity was positively associated with community norms for fast food consumption (RR=1.28, 95% CI: 1.22-1.33), fast food preferences (RR=1.09, 95% CI: 1.06-1.12) and nutrition knowledge (RR=1.02, 95% CI: 1.01-1.03). Urbanization is associated with food environment in China. The findings provide insight for future economic development and public health efforts related to urbanization.

Relative Preference and Localized Food Affect Predator Space Use and Consumption of Incidental Prey.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tyler E Schartel

Full Text Available Abundant, localized foods can concentrate predators and their foraging efforts, thus altering both the spatial distribution of predation risk and predator preferences for prey that are encountered incidentally. However, few investigations have quantified the spatial scale over which localized foods affect predator foraging behavior and consumption of incidental prey. In spring 2010, we experimentally tested how point-source foods altered how generalist predators (white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus utilized space and depredated two incidental prey items: almonds (Prunus dulcis; highly profitable and maple seeds (Acer saccharum; less profitable. We estimated mouse population densities with trapping webs, quantified mouse consumption rates of these incidental prey items, and measured local mouse activity with track plates. We predicted that 1 mouse activity would be elevated near full feeders, but depressed at intermediate distances from the feeder, 2 consumption of both incidental prey would be high near feeders providing less-preferred food and, 3 consumption of incidental prey would be contingent on predator preference for prey relative to feeders providing more-preferred food. Mouse densities increased significantly from pre- to post-experiment. Mean mouse activity was unexpectedly greatest in control treatments, particularly <15 m from the control (empty feeder. Feeders with highly preferred food (sunflower seeds created localized refuges for incidental prey at intermediate distances (15 to 25m from the feeder. Feeders with less-preferred food (corn generated localized high risk for highly preferred almonds <10 m of the feeder. Our findings highlight the contingent but predictable effects of locally abundant food on risk experienced by incidental prey, which can be positive or negative depending on both spatial proximity and relative preference.

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OLUWOLE AKINNAGBE

2009-09-03

Sep 3, 2009 ... Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 8 ... 3 International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, High Rainfall Station,. Onne, Rivers State ...... Biosciences proceedings. 6: 444-454.

Changing the Food Environment: The French Experience12

OpenAIRE

Chauliac, Michel; Hercberg, Serge

2012-01-01

The French National Nutrition and Health Program was launched in 2001. To achieve its objectives, 2 main preventive strategies were identified: 1) provide information and education to help individuals make healthy food and physical activity choices; and 2) improve the food and physical environment so that making healthy choices is easier. School regulations have been established to improve the nutritional quality of meals served to children and adolescents, and vending machines have been bann...

Assessing mobile food vendors (a.k.a. street food vendors)—methods, challenges, and lessons learned for future food-environment research

Science.gov (United States)

Lucan, Sean C.; Varona, Monica; Maroko, Andrew R.; Bumol, Joel; Torrens, Luis; Wylie-Rosett, Judith

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVES Mobile food vendors (also known as street food vendors) may be important sources of food, particularly in minority and low-income communities. Unfortunately, there are no good data sources on where, when, or what vendors sell. The lack of a published assessment method may contribute to the relative exclusion of mobile food vendors from existing food-environment research. A goal of this study was to develop, pilot, and troubleshoot a method to assess mobile food vendors. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional assessment of mobile food vendors through direct observations and brief interviews. METHODS Using printed maps, investigators canvassed all streets in Bronx County, NY (excluding highways but including entrance and exit ramps) in 2010, looking for mobile food vendors. For each vendor identified, researchers recorded a unique identifier, the vendor’s location, and direct observations. Investigators also recorded vendors answers to where, when, and what they sold. RESULTS Of 372 identified vendors, 38% did not answer brief-interview questions (19% were “in transit”, 15% refused; others were absent from their carts/trucks/stands or with customers). About 7% of vendors who ultimately answered questions were reluctant to engage with researchers. Some vendors expressed concerns about regulatory authority; only 34% of vendors had visible permits or licenses and many vendors had improvised illegitimate-appearing set-ups. The majority of vendors (75% of those responding) felt most comfortable speaking Spanish; 5% preferred other non-English languages. Nearly a third of vendors changed selling locations (streets, neighborhoods, boroughs) day-to-day or even within a given day. There was considerable variability in times (hours, days, months) in which vendors reported doing business; for 86% of vendors, weather was a deciding factor. CONCLUSIONS Mobile food vendors have a variable and fluid presence in an urban environment. Variability in hours and locations, having

Assessing mobile food vendors (a.k.a. street food vendors)--methods, challenges, and lessons learned for future food-environment research.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucan, S C; Varona, M; Maroko, A R; Bumol, J; Torrens, L; Wylie-Rosett, J

2013-08-01

Mobile food vendors (also known as street food vendors) may be important sources of food, particularly in minority and low-income communities. Unfortunately, there are no good data sources on where, when, or what vendors sell. The lack of a published assessment method may contribute to the relative exclusion of mobile food vendors from existing food-environment research. A goal of this study was to develop, pilot, and refine a method to assess mobile food vendors. Cross-sectional assessment of mobile food vendors through direct observations and brief interviews. Using printed maps, investigators canvassed all streets in Bronx County, NY (excluding highways but including entrance and exit ramps) in 2010, looking for mobile food vendors. For each vendor identified, researchers recorded a unique identifier, the vendor's location, and direct observations. Investigators also recorded vendors answers to where, when, and what they sold. Of 372 identified vendors, 38% did not answer brief-interview questions (19% were 'in transit', 15% refused; others were absent from their carts/trucks/stands or with customers). About 7% of vendors who ultimately answered questions were reluctant to engage with researchers. Some vendors expressed concerns about regulatory authority; only 34% of vendors had visible permits or licenses and many vendors had improvised illegitimate-appearing set-ups. The majority of vendors (75% of those responding) felt most comfortable speaking Spanish; 5% preferred other non-English languages. Nearly a third of vendors changed selling locations (streets, neighbourhoods, boroughs) day-to-day or even within a given day. There was considerable variability in times (hours, days, months) in which vendors reported doing business; for 86% of vendors, weather was a deciding factor. Mobile food vendors have a variable and fluid presence in an urban environment. Variability in hours and locations, having most comfort with languages other than English, and reluctance

The healthy food environment policy index: findings of an expert panel in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Vandevijvere, Stefanie; Dominick, Clare; Devi, Anandita; Swinburn, Boyd

2015-05-01

To assess government actions to improve the healthiness of food environments in New Zealand, based on the healthy food environment policy index. A panel of 52 public health experts rated the extent of government implementation against international best practice for 42 indicators of food environment policy and infrastructure support. Their ratings were informed by documented evidence, validated by government officials and international benchmarks. There was a high level of implementation for some indicators: providing ingredient lists and nutrient declarations and regulating health claims on packaged foods; transparency in policy development; monitoring prevalence of noncommunicable diseases and monitoring risk factors for noncommunicable diseases. There was very little, if any implementation of the following indicators: restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children; fiscal and food retail policies and protection of national food environments within trade agreements. Interrater reliability was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.76-0.79). Based on the implementation gaps, the experts recommended 34 actions, and prioritized seven of these. The healthy food environment policy index provides a useful set of indicators that can focus attention on where government action is needed. It is anticipated that this policy index will increase accountability of governments, stimulate government action and support civil society advocacy efforts.

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PC USER

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 12 ... proper financial analysis of beneficiaries' enterprises with the view to effectively ascertaining the quantum of ..... Quantitative Analysis of the Major ...

Survey of physicochemical characteristics and microbial contamination in selected food locally vended in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania.

Science.gov (United States)

Nonga, Hezron Emmanuel; Ngowi, Helena Aminiel; Mdegela, Robinson Hammerthon; Mutakyawa, Eliud; Nyahinga, Gabriel Busungu; William, Robert; Mwadini, Mtumwa Mohd

2015-11-26

Raw milk, raw fruit juice and raw fish are enriched with essential nutrients for human diet but are prone to microbial contamination along the value chain. This cross sectional study was conducted to assess physicochemical characteristics and microbial quality of raw milk, fruit juice and fish from food vendors in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. The physicochemical assessment of food samples was done by smell, colour, presence of debris, turbidity, consistence, pH and clot on alcohol test. Hygiene of food containers, personnel and the vending environment was also assessed. Qualitative and quantitative microbial assessment of food was done using standard laboratory protocols as described by Tanzania Bureau of Standards and International Systems of Standards. Raw milk sold in Morogoro was of poor quality since was adulterated with water, contained sediments and clotted on alcohol test. Up to 63 % of the milk samples were contaminated with Escherichia coli and 60 % had higher total viable count (TVC) than the recommended values. Raw fruit juice was stored in dirty containers and sold under unhygienic environment. Seventy-three percent of juice samples had TVC beyond the recommendations while E. coli contamination rate was 63.3 %. The raw fish samples had started spoiling as depicted through sensory evaluation. E. coli contamination rate was 55 % and that of Campylobacter jejuni was 0.5 %. The mean TVC of raw fish was 8.1 (Log cfu/g) and 96.2 % of the fish samples had TVC beyond the recommended limits of 5.0 Log cfu/g. The physicochemical characteristics of food vended in Morogoro Municipality were of poor quality. The food had high bacterial contaminations. This situation poses health risks to the public and losses to food vendors due to spoilage. Stakeholders in food value chain should be educated on safe production and good hygienic practices. Routine quality and safety assessment of locally vended food, inspection of selling premises and regular health check-up of

Preparing suitable climate scenario data to assess impacts on local food safety

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Liu, C.; Hofstra, N.; Leemans, R.

2015-01-01

Quantification of climate change impacts on food safety requires food safety assessment with different past and future climate scenario data to compare current and future conditions. This study presents a tool to prepare climate and climate change data for local food safety scenario analysis and

Differences in food environment perceptions and spatial attributes of food shopping between residents of low and high food access areas.

Science.gov (United States)

Sohi, Inderbir; Bell, Bethany A; Liu, Jihong; Battersby, Sarah E; Liese, Angela D

2014-01-01

To explore potential differences in food shopping behaviors and healthy food availability perceptions between residents living in areas with low and high food access. A cross-sectional telephone survey to assess food shopping behaviors and perceptions. Data from an 8-county food environment field census used to define the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) healthier food retail tract and US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service food desert measure. A total of 968 residents in 8 South Carolina counties. Residents' food shopping behaviors and healthy food availability perceptions. Linear and logistic regression. Compared with residents in high food access areas, residents in low food access areas traveled farther to their primary food store (US Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service: 8.8 vs 7.1 miles, P = .03; CDC: 9.2 vs 6.1 miles, P shopping miles per week (CDC: 28.0 vs 15.4 miles; P shopping access (P Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Narratives of Food Insecurity in Tippecanoe County, Indiana: Economic Constraints in Local Meanings of Hunger.

Science.gov (United States)

Dutta, Mohan Jyoti; Hingson, LaReina; Anaele, Agaptus; Sen, Soumitro; Jones, Kyle

2016-01-01

Food insecurity and its most extreme form, hunger, have increased exponentially in the United States since 2006. This essay seeks to contribute to our understanding of hunger by attending to the context of the financial crisis as an organizing frame for understanding local meanings of hunger. Within a broader framework of the culture-centered approach (CCA) that works to identify and develop locally rooted solutions to food insecurity, we describe through locally grounded stories of food insecurity the financial climate where large percentages of U.S. households have been cast into poverty because of the crash of an unregulated economy. These local understandings of hunger in the context of the economy offer entry points for organizing a food-insecure coalition that seeks to address the stigma around food insecurity.

How Segregation Makes Us Fat: Food Behaviors and Food Environment as Mediators of the Relationship Between Residential Segregation and Individual Body Mass Index

OpenAIRE

Melody Goodman; Sarah Lyons; Lorraine T. Dean; Cassandra Arroyo; James Aaron Hipp

2018-01-01

ObjectivesRacial residential segregation affects food landscapes that dictate residents’ food environments and is associated with obesity risk factors, including individual dietary patterns and behaviors. We examine if food behaviors and environments mediate the association between segregation and body mass index (BMI).MethodsNon-Hispanic Whites and Blacks living in the St. Louis and Kansas City metro regions from 2012 to 2013 were surveyed on dietary behaviors, food environment, and BMI (n =...

Work group I: Measures of the food and physical activity environment: instruments.

Science.gov (United States)

Saelens, Brian E; Glanz, Karen

2009-04-01

A work group was convened to identify the core challenges, content gaps, and corresponding possible solutions for improving food- and physical activity-environment instrumentation. Identified challenges included instrument proliferation, the scaling or grain of instruments and appropriate aggregation to the neighborhood or community level, and unknown sensitivity to change of most instruments. Solutions for addressing these challenges included establishing an interactive and real-time instrument repository, developing and enforcing high standards for instrument reporting, increasing community-researcher collaborations, and implementing surveillance of food and physical activity environment. Solid instrumentation will accelerate a better understanding of food- and physical activity-environment effects on eating and physical activity behaviors.

Can local be the new organic? Food choice motives and willingness to pay

OpenAIRE

Roosen, Jutta; Kottl, Barbara; Hasselbach, Johanna

2012-01-01

Due to growth and changing distribution channels for organic food in Germany, there is some concern that organic food will lose against local food in the competition for conscious consumers. In this paper we will present the results of a survey in Bavaria searching for consumer motives and label recognition. A choice experiment using different prices, brands and labels is conducted for bread, beer and milk. Results show the importance of local production to the surveyed consumers, similarly f...

Gender and food, a study of attitudes in the USA towards organic, local, U.S. grown, and GM-free foods.

Science.gov (United States)

Bellows, Anne C; Alcaraz V, Gabriela; Hallman, William K

2010-12-01

Food choice is influenced by consumer attitudes towards food attributes. This U.S.-based study (n = 601) simultaneously compares attitudes towards selected food attributes of organic, locally grown, U.S. grown, and GM-free food in relation to other food attributes. Exploratory factor analysis identifies underlying constructs that determine, together and separately, female and male food choice decisions. Gendered analysis of the value of food in life and food behaviours (cooking and shopping) support the investigation of the highlighted food attributes. Respondents generally assigned greater importance to the U.S. grown, followed by GM-free, locally grown, and organically produced food attributes in deciding what to eat. Analysis of the female and male subsamples yielded similar factor results. All four main attributes were captured in a single factor, associated with respondents in both the female and male subsamples who are older, have lower incomes, and who are religiously observant. Additionally, among females, this factor was associated with higher education; and among males, living in households with children and/or with partners. Additional studies should further explore the interaction of food attributes now becoming increasingly important and prevalent in current food products. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

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Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 12 Number 3 ... agricultural field one could maintain a high level of soil fertility. ..... Journal of Applied Biosciences. 7: 202-206. ... International Journal of.

Field validation of food outlet databases: the Latino food environment in North Carolina, USA.

Science.gov (United States)

Rummo, Pasquale E; Albrecht, Sandra S; Gordon-Larsen, Penny

2015-04-01

Obtaining valid, reliable measures of food environments that serve Latino communities is important for understanding barriers to healthy eating in this at-risk population. The primary aim of the study was to examine agreement between retail food outlet data from two commercial databases, Nielsen TDLinx (TDLinx) for food stores and Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) for food stores and restaurants, relative to field observations of food stores and restaurants in thirty-one census tracts in Durham County, NC, USA. We also examined differences by proportion of Hispanic population (Spanish language. One hundred and seventy-four food stores and 337 restaurants in Durham County, NC, USA. We found that overall sensitivity of food store listings in TDLinx was higher (64 %) than listings in D&B (55 %). Twenty-five food stores were characterized by auditors as Latino food stores, with 20 % identified in TDLinx, 52 % in D&B and 56 % in both sources. Overall sensitivity of restaurants (68 %) was higher than sensitivity of Latino restaurants (38 %) listed in D&B. Sensitivity did not differ substantially by Hispanic composition of neighbourhoods. Our findings suggest that while TDLinx and D&B commercial data sources perform well for total food stores, they perform less well in identifying small and independent food outlets, including many Latino food stores and restaurants.

Social media indicators of the food environment and state health outcomes.

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Q C; Meng, H; Li, D; Kath, S; McCullough, M; Paul, D; Kanokvimankul, P; Nguyen, T X; Li, F

2017-07-01

Contextual factors can influence health through exposures to health-promoting and risk-inducing factors. The aim of this study was to (1) build, from geotagged Twitter and Yelp data, a national food environment database and (2) to test associations between state food environment indicators and health outcomes. This is a cross-sectional study based upon secondary analyses of publicly available data. Using Twitter's Streaming Application Programming Interface (API), we collected and processed 4,041,521 food-related, geotagged tweets between April 2015 and March 2016. Using Yelp's Search API, we collected data on 505,554 unique food-related businesses. In linear regression models, we examined associations between food environment characteristics and state-level health outcomes, controlling for state-level differences in age, percent non-Hispanic white, and median household income. A one standard deviation increase in caloric density of food tweets was related to higher all-cause mortality (+46.50 per 100,000), diabetes (+0.75%), obesity (+1.78%), high cholesterol (+1.40%), and fair/poor self-rated health (2.01%). More burger Yelp listings were related to higher prevalence of diabetes (+0.55%), obesity (1.35%), and fair/poor self-rated health (1.12%). More alcohol tweets and Yelp bars and pub listings were related to higher state-level binge drinking and heavy drinking, but lower mortality and lower percent reporting fair/poor self-rated health. Supplemental analyses with county-level social media indicators and county health outcomes resulted in finding similar but slightly attenuated associations compared to those found at the state level. Social media can be utilized to create indicators of the food environment that are associated with area-level mortality, health behaviors, and chronic conditions. Copyright © 2017 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Local environment can enhance fidelity of quantum teleportation

Science.gov (United States)

BadziaĢ, Piotr; Horodecki, Michał; Horodecki, Paweł; Horodecki, Ryszard

2000-07-01

We show how an interaction with the environment can enhance fidelity of quantum teleportation. To this end, we present examples of states which cannot be made useful for teleportation by any local unitary transformations; nevertheless, after being subjected to a dissipative interaction with the local environment, the states allow for teleportation with genuinely quantum fidelity. The surprising fact here is that the necessary interaction does not require any intelligent action from the parties sharing the states. In passing, we produce some general results regarding optimization of teleportation fidelity by local action. We show that bistochastic processes cannot improve fidelity of two-qubit states. We also show that in order to have their fidelity improvable by a local process, the bipartite states must violate the so-called reduction criterion of separability.

‘Obesogenic’ School Food Environments? An Urban Case Study in the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Timmermans, Joris; Dijkstra, Coosje; Kamphuis, Carlijn; Huitink, Marlijn; van der Zee, Egbert; Poelman, Maartje

(1) Background: This study aimed to explore and define socio-economic (SES) differences in urban school food environments in The Netherlands. (2) Methods: Retail food outlets, ready-to-eat products, in-store food promotions and food advertisements in public space were determined within 400 m walking

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

PC USER

Agro-Science Journal of Tropical Agriculture, Food, Environment and Extension. Volume 14 ... 3Department of Home Science, Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka,. Nigeria ..... work was found to be 25.7%. This value is higher.

The association between neighborhood economic hardship, the retail food environment, fast food intake, and obesity: findings from the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin.

Science.gov (United States)

Laxy, Michael; Malecki, Kristen C; Givens, Marjory L; Walsh, Matthew C; Nieto, F Javier

2015-03-13

Neighborhood-level characteristics such as economic hardship and the retail food environment are assumed to be correlated and to influence consumers' dietary behavior and health status, but few studies have investigated these different relationships comprehensively in a single study. This work aims to investigate the association between neighborhood-level economic hardship, the retail food environment, fast food consumption, and obesity prevalence. Linking data from the population-based Survey of the Health of Wisconsin (SHOW, n = 1,570, 2008-10) and a commercially available business database, the Wisconsin Retail Food Environment Index (WRFEI) was defined as the mean distance from each participating household to the three closest supermarkets divided by the mean distance to the three closest convenience stores or fast food restaurants. Based on US census data, neighborhood-level economic hardship was defined by the Economic Hardship Index (EHI). Relationships were analyzed using multivariate linear and logistic regression models. SHOW residents living in neighborhoods with the highest economic hardship faced a less favorable retail food environment (WRFEI = 2.53) than residents from neighborhoods with the lowest economic hardship (WRFEI = 1.77; p-trend associations between the WRFEI and obesity and only a weak borderline-significant association between access to fast food restaurants and self-reported fast food consumption (≥ 2 times/week, OR = 0.59-0.62, p = 0.05-0.09) in urban residents. Participants reporting higher frequency of fast food consumption (≥ 2 times vs. obese (OR = 1.35, p = 0.06). This study indicates that neighborhood-level economic hardship is associated with an unfavorable retail food environment. However inconsistent or non-significant relationships between the retail food environment, fast food consumption, and obesity were observed. More research is needed to enhance methodological approaches to assess the retail food environment and

The neighborhood food environment: sources of historical data on retail food stores

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gonzalez Alma A

2006-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract With the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity in the United States, and the minimal success of education-based interventions, there is growing interest in understanding the role of the neighborhood food environment in determining dietary behavior. This study, as part of a larger study, identifies historical data on retail food stores, evaluates strengths and limitations of the data for research, and assesses the comparability of historical retail food store data from a government and a commercial source. Five government and commercial listings of retail food stores were identified. The California State Board of Equalization (SBOE database was selected and then compared to telephone business directory listings. The Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to assess the congruency of food store counts per census tract between the SBOE and telephone business directory databases. The setting was four cities in Northern California, 1979–1990. The SBOE and telephone business directory databases listed 127 and 351 retail food stores, respectively. The SBOE listed 36 stores not listed by the telephone business directories, while the telephone business directories listed 260 stores not listed by the SBOE. Spearman's correlation coefficients between estimates of stores per census tract made from the SBOE listings and those made from the telephone business directory listings were approximately 0.5 (p

Differences in Food Environment Perceptions and Spatial Attributes of Food Shopping between Residents of Low and High Food Access Areas

Science.gov (United States)

Sohi, Inderbir; Bell, Bethany A.; Liu, Jihong; Battersby, Sarah E.; Liese, Angela D.

2014-01-01

Objective To explore potential differences in food shopping behaviors and healthy food availability perceptions between residents living in areas with low and high food access. Design A cross-sectional telephone survey to assess food shopping behaviors and perceptions. Data from an eight-county food environment field census used to define the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) healthier food retail tract and USDA ERS (United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service) food desert measure. Participants 968 residents in eight South Carolina counties. Main Outcome Measures Residents’ food shopping behaviors and healthy food availability perceptions. Analysis Linear and logistic regression. Results Compared to residents in high food access areas, residents in low food access areas traveled further to their primary food store (USDA ERS: 8.8 vs. 7.1 miles, p=0.03; CDC: 9.2 vs. 6.1 miles, pshopping miles per week; CDC 28.0 vs. 15.4 miles, pshopping access (p<0.001). Conclusions and Implications These findings lend support to ongoing community and policy interventions aimed at reducing food access disparities. PMID:24560861

Local food protection and safety infrastructure and capacity: a Maryland case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Kufel, Joanna Zablotsky; Resnick, Beth A; Fox, Mary; Frattaroli, Shannon; Gielen, Andrea; Burke, Thomas A

2011-01-01

In Maryland, county Food Protection Programs (FPP), housed within Environmental Public Health (EPH) Divisions, maintain responsibility for regular inspection of all food service facilities (FSF). With growing concerns about how our food supply is protected, it is important to determine the state and effectiveness of our food safety systems. This research elucidates the roles, responsibilities, strengths, and weaknesses of Food Safety and Protection Programs in Maryland. A 16-question survey tool, which addressed facets of the local food protection infrastructure, including FSF inspections, staffing, budget, and foodborne illness surveillance, was distributed to all 24 county FPP. The number of FSF in Maryland increased 97% from 2001 to 2006 and counties had an average inspection completion rate of 73%, with a 4% increase over the time period. Statewide, there were 4.1 EPH full-time employees (FTE) per 10 000 population and 1.6 FPP FTE per 10 000 population. EPH Division budgets increased 63% statewide, from $19.5 million in 2000 to $31.9 million in 2007. FPP budgets also increased 59% over the period, from $6.2 million in 2000 to $9.8 million in 2007. This study offers new quantitative measures of the demands, capacities, and performance of Food Protection and Safety Programs in Maryland. This assessment of local EPH and FPP capacity also offers insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the local food protection and safety infrastructure. Importantly, it reveals an infrastructure and dedicated food protection workforce that inspects the food supply and responds to foodborne illness outbreaks. Yet, resources vary substantially from county to county, impacting which services can be provided and how well they can be performed. This can, in turn, impact the potential risk of foodborne illness and the public's overall health.

Are campus food environments healthy? A novel perspective for qualitatively evaluating the nutritional quality of food sold at foodservice facilities at a Brazilian university.

Science.gov (United States)

Pulz, Isadora Santos; Martins, Paula Andréa; Feldman, Charles; Veiros, Marcela Boro

2017-03-01

The purpose of this novel study was to evaluate the food environment at a Brazilian university, encompassing 6 restaurants and 13 snack bars. The investigation uniquely analyses the food environment (barriers, facilitators, type of foods and prices). This was a food-based analysis of the nutritional quality of the products sold on campus. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used, applying the classic Nutrition Environment Measures Survey-Restaurants (NEMS-R) adapted for Brazil and an original methodology to evaluate and classify qualitatively the nutritional quality and characteristics of the food. A census of all campus food environments was applied. The main results show most food and beverage products were made with processed ingredients and had a lower nutritional quality and price when compared with similar products made on premises, that is, processed iced tea compared with fresh tea ( p flour salgados compared with baked wholegrain flour salgados ( p flour biscuits compared with those made with whole grains ( p = .028). Only 16% of the outlets provided food ingredients or nutritional information of products available. The overall options for healthy food choices and good nutritional quality on campus were mostly limited by the availability and higher prices of products. These findings could be used to develop new policy perspectives for the offering of healthy food items and to facilitate better food choices among students in a healthier food environment.

Food venue choice, consumer food environment, but not food venue availability within daily travel patterns are associated with dietary intake among adults, Lexington Kentucky 2011.

Science.gov (United States)

Gustafson, Alison; Christian, Jay W; Lewis, Sarah; Moore, Kate; Jilcott, Stephanie

2013-01-29

The retail food environment may be one important determinant of dietary intake. However, limited research focuses on individuals' food shopping behavior and activity within the retail food environment. This study's aims were to determine the association between six various dietary indicators and 1) food venue availability; 2) food venue choice and frequency; and 3) availability of healthy food within food venue. In Fall, 2011, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (n=121) age 18 years and over in Lexington, Kentucky. Participants wore a global position system (GPS) data logger for 3-days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day) to track their daily activity space, which was used to assess food activity space. They completed a survey to assess demographics, food shopping behaviors, and dietary outcomes. Food store audits were conducted using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey-Store Rudd (NEMS-S) in stores where respondents reported purchasing food (n=22). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine associations between six dietary variables with food venue availability within activity space; food venue choice; frequency of shopping; and availability of food within food venue. 1) Food venue availability within activity space - no significant associations. 2) Food Venue Choice - Shopping at farmers' markets or specialty grocery stores reported higher odds of consuming fruits and vegetables (OR 1.60 95% CI [1.21, 2.79]). Frequency of shopping - Shopping at a farmers' markets and specialty stores at least once a week reported higher odds of consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR 1.55 95% CI [1.08, 2.23]). Yet, shopping frequently at a super market had higher odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 1.39 95% CI [1.03, 1.86]). 3) Availability of food within store - those who shop in supermarkets with high availability of healthy food has lower odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 0.65 95% CI [0.14, 0.83]). Interventions aimed at

Food Seeking in a Risky Environment: A Method for Evaluating Risk and Reward Value in Food Seeking and Consumption in Mice.

Science.gov (United States)

Lockie, Sarah H; McAuley, Clare V; Rawlinson, Sasha; Guiney, Natalie; Andrews, Zane B

2017-01-01

Most studies that measure food intake in mice do so in the home cage environment. This necessarily means that mice do not engage in food seeking before consumption, a behavior that is ubiquitous in free-living animals. We modified and validated several commonly used anxiety tests to include a palatable food reward within the anxiogenic zone. This allowed us to assess risk-taking behavior in food seeking in mice in response to different metabolic stimuli. We modified the open field test and the light/dark box by placing palatable peanut butter chips within a designated food zone inside the anxiogenic zone of each apparatus. We then assessed parameters of the interaction with the food reward. Fasted mice or mice treated with ghrelin showed increased consumption and increased time spent in the food zone immediately around the food reward compared to ad libitum fed mice or mice treated with saline. However, fasted mice treated with IP glucose before exposure to the behavioral arena showed reduced time in the food zone compared to fasted controls, indicating that acute metabolic signals can modify the assessment of safety in food seeking in a risky environment. The tests described in this study will be useful in assessing risk processing and incentive salience of food reward, which are intrinsic components of food acquisition outside of the laboratory environment, in a range of genetic and pharmacological models.

Radioactivity in food and the environment, 2002

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2003-01-01

This report contains the results of radiological monitoring of food and the environment throughout the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The primary purpose of the monitoring programmes is to provide an independent check on the effects of discharges made by users of radioactive materials in the United Kingdom, and to ensure that any radioactivity present in food and the environment does not compromise public health.' For the first time, it represents a comprehensive summary of results across the United Kingdom from programmes sponsored by the Environment Agency, the Environment and Heritage Service, the Food Standards Agency and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. The results of these monitoring programmes demonstrate that in 2002 even the most exposed members of the public received radiation doses from food and other pathways that were below the statutory United Kingdom annual dose limit to members of the public of 1 mSv (millisievert), European Union limits and Government targets. Assessed doses at all major sites in the United Kingdom are shown in Figure S and are detailed in the Summary Table. The highest radiation doses were received by a group of high-rate consumers offish and shellfish in Cumbria. The doses received by these consumers are a combination of contributions from liquid discharges from both Sellafield and from radioactivity in the environment as a result of past discharges from the Rhodia Consumer Specialties Ltd. (formerly Albright and Wilson) plant at Whitehaven. The dose to these high-rate consumers (including external doses) from Sellafield discharges was estimated to be 0.19 mSv in 2002 compared with 0.15 mSv in 2001. Concentrations in food and dose rates were largely unchanged in 2002 though there were some small increases in concentrations of tritium, carbon-14 and technetium-99 in seafood. The main reason for the increase in dose was an increase in the amount of seafood eaten. This group also received an

Change in the family food environment is associated with positive dietary change in children.

Science.gov (United States)

Hendrie, Gilly; Sohonpal, Gundeep; Lange, Kylie; Golley, Rebecca

2013-01-07

The family food environment is an important influence in the development of children's dietary habits. Research suggests that influences of current dietary behaviour and behaviour change may differ. The aims of this paper were to: (1) investigate the association between the food environment at baseline and change in children's saturated fat intake; and (2) to explore whether a change in the food environment was associated with a change in children's saturated fat intake. Secondary analysis of a 12 week cluster randomised controlled trial in 133 4-13 year old children. Families were randomly allocated to parental education regarding changing to reduced-fat dairy foods or a comparison non-dietary behaviour. The interventions were family focused. Parents received education from a dietitian in 3x30 minute sessions to facilitate behaviour change. Parents completed a comprehensive questionnaire capturing three domains of the food environment--Parent knowledge and attitudes; shaping practices; and behaviours and role modelling. Children's dietary intake was assessed via multiple 24-hour recalls at baseline and week 12. Changes in the family food environment and primary outcome (saturated fat) were calculated. Hierarchical linear regression models were performed to explore the association between baseline and change in food environment constructs and change in saturated fat intake. Standardised Beta are presented (pchange in saturated fat. An increase in nutrition knowledge (β=-0.2), perceived responsibility (β=-0.3) and restriction (β=-0.3) from baseline to week 12 were associated with greater reduction in saturated fat intake. The present study was one of the first to quantify changes in the family food environment, and identify a number of factors which were associated with a positive dietary change. Because interventions focus on behaviour change, the findings may provide specific targets for intervention strategies in the future. Australia New Zealand Clinical

Clustering of fast-food restaurants around schools: a novel application of spatial statistics to the study of food environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Austin, S Bryn; Melly, Steven J; Sanchez, Brisa N; Patel, Aarti; Buka, Stephen; Gortmaker, Steven L

2005-09-01

We examined the concentration of fast food restaurants in areas proximal to schools to characterize school neighborhood food environments. We used geocoded databases of restaurant and school addresses to examine locational patterns of fast-food restaurants and kindergartens and primary and secondary schools in Chicago. We used the bivariate K function statistical method to quantify the degree of clustering (spatial dependence) of fast-food restaurants around school locations. The median distance from any school in Chicago to the nearest fast-food restaurant was 0.52 km, a distance that an adult can walk in little more than 5 minutes, and 78% of schools had at least 1 fast-food restaurant within 800 m. Fast-food restaurants were statistically significantly clustered in areas within a short walking distance from schools, with an estimated 3 to 4 times as many fast-food restaurants within 1.5 km from schools than would be expected if the restaurants were distributed throughout the city in a way unrelated to school locations. Fast-food restaurants are concentrated within a short walking distance from schools, exposing children to poor-quality food environments in their school neighborhoods.

Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristen Cooksey-Stowers

2017-11-01

Full Text Available This paper investigates the effect of food environments, characterized as food swamps, on adult obesity rates. Food swamps have been described as areas with a high-density of establishments selling high-calorie fast food and junk food, relative to healthier food options. This study examines multiple ways of categorizing food environments as food swamps and food deserts, including alternate versions of the Retail Food Environment Index. We merged food outlet, sociodemographic and obesity data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA Food Environment Atlas, the American Community Survey, and a commercial street reference dataset. We employed an instrumental variables (IV strategy to correct for the endogeneity of food environments (i.e., that individuals self-select into neighborhoods and may consider food availability in their decision. Our results suggest that the presence of a food swamp is a stronger predictor of obesity rates than the absence of full-service grocery stores. We found, even after controlling for food desert effects, food swamps have a positive, statistically significant effect on adult obesity rates. All three food swamp measures indicated the same positive association, but reflected different magnitudes of the food swamp effect on rates of adult obesity (p values ranged from 0.00 to 0.16. Our adjustment for reverse causality, using an IV approach, revealed a stronger effect of food swamps than would have been obtained by naïve ordinary least squares (OLS estimates. The food swamp effect was stronger in counties with greater income inequality (p < 0.05 and where residents are less mobile (p < 0.01. Based on these findings, local government policies such as zoning laws simultaneously restricting access to unhealthy food outlets and incentivizing healthy food retailers to locate in underserved neighborhoods warrant consideration as strategies to increase health equity.

Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States

Science.gov (United States)

Cooksey-Stowers, Kristen; Schwartz, Marlene B.; Brownell, Kelly D.

2017-01-01

This paper investigates the effect of food environments, characterized as food swamps, on adult obesity rates. Food swamps have been described as areas with a high-density of establishments selling high-calorie fast food and junk food, relative to healthier food options. This study examines multiple ways of categorizing food environments as food swamps and food deserts, including alternate versions of the Retail Food Environment Index. We merged food outlet, sociodemographic and obesity data from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Environment Atlas, the American Community Survey, and a commercial street reference dataset. We employed an instrumental variables (IV) strategy to correct for the endogeneity of food environments (i.e., that individuals self-select into neighborhoods and may consider food availability in their decision). Our results suggest that the presence of a food swamp is a stronger predictor of obesity rates than the absence of full-service grocery stores. We found, even after controlling for food desert effects, food swamps have a positive, statistically significant effect on adult obesity rates. All three food swamp measures indicated the same positive association, but reflected different magnitudes of the food swamp effect on rates of adult obesity (p values ranged from 0.00 to 0.16). Our adjustment for reverse causality, using an IV approach, revealed a stronger effect of food swamps than would have been obtained by naïve ordinary least squares (OLS) estimates. The food swamp effect was stronger in counties with greater income inequality (p < 0.05) and where residents are less mobile (p < 0.01). Based on these findings, local government policies such as zoning laws simultaneously restricting access to unhealthy food outlets and incentivizing healthy food retailers to locate in underserved neighborhoods warrant consideration as strategies to increase health equity. PMID:29135909

[Local food production for school feeding programmes in Spain].

Science.gov (United States)

Soares, Panmela; Martínez-Mián, Maria Asunción; Caballero, Pablo; Vives-Cases, Carmen; Davó-Blanes, Mari Carmen

To identify and characterize initiatives that promote the purchase of locally-sourced foods to supply schools and the school centres carrying out the initiatives. Exploratory, descriptive study based on secondary data and key informant reports. A search of governmental and non-governmental initiatives was carried out at the autonomous community level. Government initiatives were located through school feeding programmes in the different autonomous communities, their nutritional guides and representatives of the councils for education and agriculture. Non-governmental initiatives were found through their own websites and the snowball technique. Initiatives were analysed by their geographic distribution, organizational area (government vs. non-government), number of school centres carrying out the initiatives, management style and organic food purchase. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out. 12 initiatives carried out by 318 schools (2.16% of all the schools with food service in Spain) were identified. Among these, 6 are governmental initiatives with a scope of 274 schools (1.86%), and 6 are non-governmental initiatives with a scope of 44 schools (0.30%). Most of these schools have a public management system in place (n=284). All the initiatives provide for the purchase of organic food. Local food purchase initiatives in Spain have a limited reach. However, the existence of a state directive could support and strengthen the development of such initiatives, given that school commitment is greater when initiatives are driven by the public sector. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Enhancing the design and management of a local organic food supply chain with Soft Systems Methodology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tavella, Elena; Hjortsø, Carsten Nico Portefée

2012-01-01

not adequately consider major aspects of local organic food supply chains such as ethics, sustainability and human values. Supply chain design and management approaches suita-ble to small-scale, local organic food enterprises are lacking and need to be developed. The aim of this paper is to suggest Soft Systems......Supply chain partners for local organic food face uncertainties such as poor collaboration and communication that cannot be reduced through the application of traditional supply chain design and management techniques. Such techniques are known to improve supply chain coordination, but they do...... Methodology (SSM) as a new and suitable ap-proach to design and manage local organic food supply chains. We illustrate how SSM can be used to reduce uncertainties within local organic food supply chains based on a German case. This illustration serves to identify the benefits of using SSM, compared with ad...

CRLBs for WSNs localization in NLOS environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wang Peng

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Determination of Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB as an optimality criterion for the problem of localization in wireless sensor networks (WSNs is a very important issue. Currently, CRLBs have been derived for line-of-sight (LOS situation in WSNs. However, one of major problems for accurate localization in WSNs is non-line-of-sight (NLOS propagation. This article proposes two CRLBs for WSNs localization in NLOS environment. The proposed CRLBs consider both the cases that positions of reference devices (RDs are perfectly or imperfectly known. Since non-parametric kernel method is used to build probability density function of NLOS errors, the proposed CRLBs are suitable for various distributions of NLOS errors. Moreover, the proposed CRLBs provide a unified presentation for both LOS and NLOS environments. Theoretical analysis also proves that the proposed CRLB for NLOS situation becomes the CRLB for LOS situation when NLOS errors go to 0, which gives a robust check for the proposed CRLB.

Food Shopping Venues, Neighborhood Food Environment, and Body Mass Index Among Guyanese, Black, and White Adults in an Urban Community in the US.

Science.gov (United States)

Hosler, Akiko S; Michaels, Isaac H; Buckenmeyer, Erin M

2016-06-01

To investigate relationships among food shopping venues, food environment, and body mass index (BMI). Cross-sectional survey data and directly assessed food environment data were linked at the neighborhood level. Schenectady, NY. A sample of Guyanese, black, and white adults (n = 226, 485, and 908, respectively). BMI. Linear regression models were constructed with 10 food shopping venues and neighborhood food environment as explanatory variables, controlling for sociodemographics, dietary behavior, physical activity, and perception of healthy food access. On average, respondents used 3.5 different food shopping venues. Supermarkets and ethnic markets were associated with a lower BMI in Guyanese adults. Among black adults, farmers' markets were associated with a lower BMI, whereas supermarkets, wholesale clubs, and food pantries were associated with a higher BMI. Among white adults, food coops and supermarkets were associated with a lower BMI and wholesale clubs were associated with a higher BMI. Neighborhoods with less a favorable food environment (longer travel distance to a supermarket) were associated with a lower BMI in Guyanese adults. Both primary (ie, supermarkets) and secondary food shopping venues could be independent determinants of BMI. The observed variations by race and ethnicity provided insights into a culturally tailored approach to address obesity. Copyright © 2016 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Consumer Preferences for Local Food: Testing an Extended Norm Taxonomy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Julius Wenzig

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Consumer attitudes toward consuming and buying locally produced food are well studied. By contrast, the topic of consumer preferences for local food, with a special emphasis on the role of norms, still lacks empirical evidence. To study the influence of norms and morals on the intention to buy local food products, a quantitative study (N = 327 focusing on external social and internalized moral norms was conducted using the constructs of the theory of planned behavior in combination with an extended norm taxonomy and the perceived consumer effectiveness measure. The norm constructs consisted of two different personal norms, integrated and introjected, and two social norms, descriptive and injunctive. In a factor analysis, two factors for social norms but only one for personal norms were obtained. Multiple regressions explained 50 percent of the variance in intentions and 29 percent of the variance in past behavior. Norm constructs were proven important in the model, as personal norms had the largest effect among all constructs on intentions, and descriptive norms strongly influenced past behavior. An additional mediation analysis showed that personal norms were internalized social injunctive norms and that intentions mediated the relationship between all constructs. The implications of the findings and recommendations for future research are given accordingly.

Food venue choice, consumer food environment, but not food venue availability within daily travel patterns are associated with dietary intake among adults, Lexington Kentucky 2011

Science.gov (United States)

2013-01-01

Objective The retail food environment may be one important determinant of dietary intake. However, limited research focuses on individuals’ food shopping behavior and activity within the retail food environment. This study’s aims were to determine the association between six various dietary indicators and 1) food venue availability; 2) food venue choice and frequency; and 3) availability of healthy food within food venue. Methods In Fall, 2011, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among adults (n=121) age 18 years and over in Lexington, Kentucky. Participants wore a global position system (GPS) data logger for 3-days (2 weekdays and 1 weekend day) to track their daily activity space, which was used to assess food activity space. They completed a survey to assess demographics, food shopping behaviors, and dietary outcomes. Food store audits were conducted using the Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey-Store Rudd (NEMS-S) in stores where respondents reported purchasing food (n=22). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine associations between six dietary variables with food venue availability within activity space; food venue choice; frequency of shopping; and availability of food within food venue. Results 1) Food venue availability within activity space – no significant associations. 2) Food Venue Choice – Shopping at farmers’ markets or specialty grocery stores reported higher odds of consuming fruits and vegetables (OR 1.60 95% CI [1.21, 2.79]). Frequency of shopping - Shopping at a farmers’ markets and specialty stores at least once a week reported higher odds of consumption of fruits and vegetables (OR 1.55 95% CI [1.08, 2.23]). Yet, shopping frequently at a super market had higher odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 1.39 95% CI [1.03, 1.86]). 3) Availability of food within store – those who shop in supermarkets with high availability of healthy food has lower odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages (OR 0.65 95

Associations between children's diets and features of their residential and school neighbourhood food environments.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Hulst, Andraea; Barnett, Tracie A; Gauvin, Lise; Daniel, Mark; Kestens, Yan; Bird, Madeleine; Gray-Donald, Katherine; Lambert, Marie

2012-07-26

Among studies of the built environment, few examine neighbourhood food environments in relation to children's diets. We examined the associations of residential and school neighbourhood access to different types of food establishments with children's diets. Data from QUALITY (Quebec Adipose and Lifestyle Investigation in Youth), an ongoing study on the natural history of obesity in 630 Quebec youth aged 8-10 years with a parental history of obesity, were analyzed (n=512). Three 24-hour diet recalls were used to assess dietary intake of vegetables and fruit, and sugar-sweetened beverages. Questionnaires were used to determine the frequency of eating/snacking out and consumption of delivered/take-out foods. We characterized residential and school neighbourhood food environments by means of a Geographic Information System. Variables included distance to the nearest supermarket, fast-food restaurant and convenience store, and densities of each food establishment type computed for 1 km network buffers around each child's residence and school. Retail Food Environment indices were also computed. Multivariable logistic regressions (residential access) and generalized estimating equations (school access) were used for analysis. Residential and school neighbourhood access to supermarkets was not associated with children's diets. Residing in neighbourhoods with lower access to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores was associated with a lower likelihood of eating and snacking out. Children attending schools in neighbourhoods with a higher number of unhealthful relative to healthful food establishments scored most poorly on dietary outcomes. Further investigations are needed to inform policies aimed at shaping neighbourhood-level food purchasing opportunities, particularly for access to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores.

Obesity and the environment: regulating the growth of fast food outlets

OpenAIRE

Public Health England

2013-01-01

A ‘healthy people, healthy places’ briefing. This briefing summarises the importance of action on obesity and a specific focus on fast food takeaways, and outlines the regulatory and other approaches that can be taken at local level. Th briefing paper addresses the opportunities to limit the number of fast food takeaways (especially near schools) and ways in which fast food offers can be made healthier.

Monitoring occurrence and persistence of Listeria monocytogenes in foods and food processing environments in the Republic of Ireland

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Dara eLeong

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Although rates of listeriosis are low in comparison to other foodborne pathogenic illnesses, listeriosis poses a significant risk to human health as the invasive form can have a mortality rate as high as 30%. Food processors, especially those who produce ready-to-eat products, need to be vigilant against Listeria monocytogenes, the causative pathogen of listeriosis, and as such, the occurrence of L. monocytogenes in food and in the food processing environment needs to be carefully monitored. To examine the prevalence and patterns of contamination in food processing facilities in Ireland, 48 food processors submitted 8 samples every 2 months from March 2013 to March 2014 to be analyzed for L. monocytogenes. No positive samples were detected for 38% of the processing facilities tested. Isolates found at the remaining 62% of facilities were characterized by serotyping and Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE. A general L. monocytogenes prevalence of 4.6% was seen in all samples analyzed with similar rates seen in food and environmental samples. Differences in prevalence were seen across different food processors, food sectors, sampling months etc. and PFGE analysis allowed for the examination of contamination patterns and for the identification of several persistent strains. Seven of the food processing facilities tested showed contamination with persistent strains and evidence of bacterial transfer from the processing environment to food (the same pulsotype found in both was seen in four of the food processing facilities tested.

Monitoring occurrence and persistence of Listeria monocytogenes in foods and food processing environments in the Republic of Ireland.

Science.gov (United States)

Leong, Dara; Alvarez-Ordóñez, Avelino; Jordan, Kieran

2014-01-01

Although rates of listeriosis are low in comparison to other foodborne pathogenic illness, listeriosis poses a significant risk to human health as the invasive form can have a mortality rate as high as 30%. Food processors, especially those who produce ready-to-eat (RTE) products, need to be vigilant against Listeria monocytogenes, the causative pathogen of listeriosis, and as such, the occurrence of L. monocytogenes in food and in the food processing environment needs to be carefully monitored. To examine the prevalence and patterns of contamination in food processing facilities in Ireland, 48 food processors submitted 8 samples every 2 months from March 2013 to March 2014 to be analyzed for L. monocytogenes. No positive samples were detected at 38% of the processing facilities tested. Isolates found at the remaining 62% of facilities were characterized by serotyping and Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE). A general L. monocytogenes prevalence of 4.6% was seen in all samples analyzed with similar rates seen in food and environmental samples. Differences in prevalence were seen across different food processors, food sectors, sampling months etc. and PFGE analysis allowed for the examination of contamination patterns and for the identification of several persistent strains. Seven of the food processing facilities tested showed contamination with persistent strains and evidence of bacterial transfer from the processing environment to food (the same pulsotype found in both) was seen in four of the food processing facilities tested.

VCE Model of Community, Local, Regional Food Systems

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Niewolny, Kim

2016-01-01

This document is a chart illustrating the Virginia Cooperative Extension model for food systems at the community, local and regional level. This chart shows an interrelationship between basic and applied research, leveraging of resources and opportunities, communication and marketing, assessment, evaluation and impact, knowledge, skills, and social change, facilitation of partnerships, and also teaching.

Assessing the Consumer Food Environment in Restaurants by Neighbourhood Distress Level across Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jin; Engler-Stringer, Rachel; Muhajarine, Nazeem

2016-03-01

To assess the consumer food environment in restaurants in Saskatoon, using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey for Restaurants (NEMS-R), to examine differences by neighbourhood distress level and to reflect on the need for further refinement of the assessment of restaurant consumer food environments. Neighbourhoods were classified as low, middle, or high distress level based on the socioeconomic indicators (income, employment, and education) in the Material Deprivation Index. Differences in restaurant consumer food environments, indicated by mean NEMS-R total and sub-scores, were examined by various restaurant categories and by varying neighbourhood distress levels. Chain coffee shops and pita and sandwich restaurants had higher NEMS-R totals and "Healthy Entrées" sub-scores; however, burger and chicken restaurants and pizza restaurants had more barriers to healthful eating. Although restaurants in lower distress level neighbourhoods generally rated healthier (higher NEMS-R scores), only a few measures (such as "Facilitators" and "Barriers") significantly differed by neighbourhood distress level. The findings highlight the importance of developing interventions to improve restaurant consumer food environments, especially in neighbourhoods with higher distress levels. The results suggest that reliable measures of the consumer food environment could be developed beginning with what can be measured by NEMS-R.

Accessibility of Local Food Production to Regional Markets – Case of Berry Production in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland

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Korhonen Kirsi

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Consumers and institutional kitchens, as well as traders, have shown increasing interest towards local food. This is particularly due to the transparency and traceability characteristic of a short supply chain and social aspects related to food origins. The trend has been increasingly common during the past decade in Europe and North America, and it is strongly evident in the case area of this study in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. In general, ease of access to food is highly important for consumers and crucial for institutional kitchens, in addition to quality aspects and price. However, regardless of proximity, poor accessibility is one of the key issues preventing the further growth of local food markets. Due to scale economics in food value chain, food transport is presently organised mainly by centralised, large-scale logistics companies directed via hubs serving millions of consumers. Accordingly, production volumes required to enter large-scale markets are often unattainable for disjointed small-scale local food producers. In this study, geographic information system (GIS-based accessibility analyses are applied for analysing potential for integral networking of local food production and transport companies. Berry production was selected as a case study because it has a relatively strong role in Northern Ostrobothnia, while its logistics are notably underdeveloped. Spatial data of primary production volumes consists of register records of farm-specific cultivation areas and average yields in Northern Ostrobothnia and Finland. Accessibility computations are based on the digital model of the Finnish road network, Digiroad. Two surveys were also implemented to farmers and food processing companies to seek views on food processing, sales, logistics and procurements regarding local food. Data from the surveys was used in accessibility analysis, which enables exploration of opportunities for establishing ‘local food’ clusters integrating

Comparing the accuracy of food outlet datasets in an urban environment

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Michelle S. Wong

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Studies that investigate the relationship between the retail food environment and health outcomes often use geospatial datasets. Prior studies have identified challenges of using the most common data sources. Retail food environment datasets created through academic-government partnership present an alternative, but their validity (retail existence, type, location has not been assessed yet. In our study, we used ground-truth data to compare the validity of two datasets, a 2015 commercial dataset (InfoUSA and data collected from 2012 to 2014 through the Maryland Food Systems Mapping Project (MFSMP, an academic-government partnership, on the retail food environment in two low-income, inner city neighbourhoods in Baltimore City. We compared sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV of the commercial and academic-government partnership data to ground-truth data for two broad categories of unhealthy food retailers: small food retailers and quick-service restaurants. Ground-truth data was collected in 2015 and analysed in 2016. Compared to the ground-truth data, MFSMP and InfoUSA generally had similar sensitivity that was greater than 85%. MFSMP had higher PPV compared to InfoUSA for both small food retailers (MFSMP: 56.3% vs InfoUSA: 40.7% and quick-service restaurants (MFSMP: 58.6% vs InfoUSA: 36.4%. We conclude that data from academic-government partnerships like MFSMP might be an attractive alternative option and improvement to relying only on commercial data. Other research institutes or cities might consider efforts to create and maintain such an environmental dataset. Even if these datasets cannot be updated on an annual basis, they are likely more accurate than commercial data.

Comparing the accuracy of food outlet datasets in an urban environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Wong, Michelle S; Peyton, Jennifer M; Shields, Timothy M; Curriero, Frank C; Gudzune, Kimberly A

2017-05-11

Studies that investigate the relationship between the retail food environment and health outcomes often use geospatial datasets. Prior studies have identified challenges of using the most common data sources. Retail food environment datasets created through academic-government partnership present an alternative, but their validity (retail existence, type, location) has not been assessed yet. In our study, we used ground-truth data to compare the validity of two datasets, a 2015 commercial dataset (InfoUSA) and data collected from 2012 to 2014 through the Maryland Food Systems Mapping Project (MFSMP), an academic-government partnership, on the retail food environment in two low-income, inner city neighbourhoods in Baltimore City. We compared sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the commercial and academic-government partnership data to ground-truth data for two broad categories of unhealthy food retailers: small food retailers and quick-service restaurants. Ground-truth data was collected in 2015 and analysed in 2016. Compared to the ground-truth data, MFSMP and InfoUSA generally had similar sensitivity that was greater than 85%. MFSMP had higher PPV compared to InfoUSA for both small food retailers (MFSMP: 56.3% vs InfoUSA: 40.7%) and quick-service restaurants (MFSMP: 58.6% vs InfoUSA: 36.4%). We conclude that data from academic-government partnerships like MFSMP might be an attractive alternative option and improvement to relying only on commercial data. Other research institutes or cities might consider efforts to create and maintain such an environmental dataset. Even if these datasets cannot be updated on an annual basis, they are likely more accurate than commercial data.

How can GPS technology help us better understand exposure to the food environment? A systematic review

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Andreea Cetateanu

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: Global Positioning Systems (GPS are increasingly being used to objectively assess movement patterns of people related to health behaviours. However research detailing their application to the food environment is scarce. This systematic review examines the application of GPS in studies of exposure to food environments and their potential influences on health. Methods: Based on an initial scoping exercise, published articles to be included in the systematic review were identified from four electronic databases and reference lists and were appraised and analysed, the final cut-off date for inclusion being January 2015. Included studies used GPS to identify location of individuals in relation to food outlets and link that to health or diet outcomes. They were appraised against a set of quality criteria. Results: Six studies met the inclusion criteria, which were appraised to be of moderate quality. Newer studies had a higher quality score. Associations between observed mobility patterns in the food environment and diet related outcomes were equivocal. Findings agreed that traditional food exposure measures overestimate the importance of the home food environment. Conclusions: The use of GPS to measure exposure to the food environment is still in its infancy yet holds much potential. There are considerable variations and challenges in developing and standardising the methods used to assess exposure. Keywords: Global positioning systems, Geographic information system, Food environments, Food exposure, Systematic review

Do US Consumers’ Perceive Local and Organic Food Differently? An Analysis Based on Means‐End Chain Analysis and Word Association

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Rainer Haas

2013-11-01

Full Text Available The market of local and organic food is still a niche market in the USA, despite its strong growth rates. Both offer consumers an alternative to a globalized anonymous food supply chain. Yet local food and organic food seem to beoverlapping and to some degree competing food concepts. While the organic food market somehow has managed to “mature”, being widely distributed in national supermarket chains, local food in the US still seems to be tied to a“grassroots food movement”, being mainly distributed over short food supply chains. With several trends indicating sustained growth for local and organic consumption, this paper first addresses different connotations of local foodand compares them to standard definitions of organic food. The main focus is to explore the perception of US consumers towards local and organic food, using results from two different studies. Both studies use laddering techniques and word association tests, which were undertaken at Cornell University in New York State and at the University of Florida in the city of Gainesville. These findings are used to achieve a better understanding of the image of local and organic food, and the motives and values of local and organic food consumers.

Government regulation to promote healthy food environments--a view from inside state governments.

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Shill, J; Mavoa, H; Allender, S; Lawrence, M; Sacks, G; Peeters, A; Crammond, B; Swinburn, B

2012-02-01

Food policy interventions are an important component of obesity-prevention strategies and can potentially drive positive changes in obesogenic environments. This study sought to identify regulatory interventions targeting the food environment, and barriers/facilitators to their implementation at the Australian state government level. In-depth interviews were conducted with senior representatives from state/territory governments, statutory authorities and non-government organizations (n =45) to examine participants' (i) suggestions for regulatory interventions for healthier food environments and (ii) support for pre-selected regulatory interventions derived from a literature review. Data were analysed using thematic and constant comparative analyses. Interventions commonly suggested by participants were regulating unhealthy food marketing; limiting the density of fast food outlets; pricing reforms to decrease fruit/vegetable prices and increase unhealthy food prices; and improved food labelling. The most commonly supported pre-selected interventions were related to food marketing and service. Primary production and retail sector interventions were least supported. The dominant themes were the need for whole-of-government and collaborative approaches; the influence of the food industry; conflicting policies/agenda; regulatory challenges; the need for evidence of effectiveness; and economic disincentives. While interventions such as public sector healthy food service policies were supported by participants, marketing restrictions and fiscal interventions face substantial barriers including a push for deregulation and private sector opposition. © 2011 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2011 International Association for the Study of Obesity.

The school food environment and adolescent obesity: qualitative insights from high school principals and food service personnel

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Ellerbeck Edward F

2007-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objectives To examine high school personnel's perceptions of the school environment, its impact on obesity, and the potential impact of legislation regulating schools' food/beverage offerings. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the principal (n = 8 and dietitian/food service manager (n = 7 at 8 schools (4 rural, 4 suburban participating in a larger study examining the relationship between the school environment and adolescent health behavior patterns. Results Principal themes included: 1 Obesity is a problem in general, but not at their school, 2 Schools have been unfairly targeted above more salient factors (e.g., community and home environment, 3 Attempts at change should start before high school, 4 Student health is one priority area among multiple competing demands; academic achievement is the top priority, 5 Legislation should be informed by educators and better incorporate the school's perspective. Food service themes included: 1 Obesity is not a problem at their school; school food service is not the cause, 2 Food offerings are based largely on the importance of preparing students for the real world by providing choice and the need to maintain high participation rates; both healthy and unhealthy options are available, 3 A la carte keeps lunch participation high and prices low but should be used as a supplement, not a replacement, to the main meal, 4 Vending provides school's additional revenue; vending is not part of food service and is appropriate if it does not interfere with the lunch program. Conclusion Discrepancies exist between government/public health officials and school personnel that may inhibit collaborative efforts to address obesity through modifications to the school environment. Future policy initiatives may be enhanced by seeking the input of school personnel, providing recommendations firmly grounded in evidence-based practice, framing initiatives in terms of their potential impact on the

Convenience stores are the key food environment influence on nutrients available from household food supplies in Texas Border Colonias

OpenAIRE

Sharkey, Joseph R; Dean, Wesley R; Nalty, Courtney C; Xu, Jin

2013-01-01

Abstract Background Few studies have focused on the relationship between the retail food environment and household food supplies. This study examines spatial access to retail food stores, food shopping habits, and nutrients available in household food supplies among 50 Mexican-origin families residing in Texas border colonias. Methods The design was cross-sectional; data were collected in the home March to June 2010 by promotora-researchers. Ground-truthed methods enumerated traditional (supe...

Contribution of soil, water and food consumption to metal exposure of children from geological enriched environments in the coastal zone of Lake Victoria, Kenya.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Oyoo-Okoth, E.; Admiraal, W.; Osano, O.; Manguya-Lusega, D; Ngure, V.; Kraak, M.H.S.; Chepkirui-Boit, V.; Makwali, J.

2013-01-01

Geologically enriched environments may contain high concentrations of some metals. In areas where industrial exposures remain superficial, children may be exposed to these geological metals through soil, drinking water and consumption of food locally grown. The aim of this study was to assess the

Food system sustainability and vulnerability: food acquisition during the military occupation of Kuwait.

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Alajmi, Fahhad; Somerset, Shawn M

2015-11-01

To document food acquisition experiences during Iraqi military occupation in Kuwait. Retrospective cross-sectional study. Urban areas in Kuwait during occupation. Those living in Kuwait during the period of occupation, and aged between 15 to 50 years at the time of occupation, recruited by snowball sampling. A total of 390 completed questionnaires (response rate 78%, 202 female and 188 male) were returned. During the occupation, food became increasingly difficult to acquire. Two food systems emerged: (i) an underground Kuwaiti network linked to foods recovered from local food cooperatives and (ii) a black market supplied by food imported through Iraq or stolen locally. Food shortages led to reductions in meal size and frequency. Some respondents (47·7%) reported not having sufficient income to purchase food and 22·1% had to sell capital items to purchase food. There was a significant increase (Pbehaviour change. Respondents reported deterioration in the quality and availability of fish, milk, and fruit in particular. Despite a decrease in opportunities for physical activity, most respondents reported that they lost weight during the occupation. Although the Kuwaiti population fell by about 90 % and domestic food production increased during the 7-month occupation, the local population continued to rely heavily on imported food to meet population needs. The high prevalence of self-reported weight loss indicates the inadequacies of this food supply. High apparent food security in systems which significantly exceed the ecological carrying capacity of the local environment and rely on mass food importation remains vulnerable.

The moderating role of food cue sensitivity in the behavioral response of children to their neighborhood food environment: a cross-sectional study.

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Paquet, Catherine; de Montigny, Luc; Labban, Alice; Buckeridge, David; Ma, Yu; Arora, Narendra; Dubé, Laurette

2017-07-05

Neighborhood food cues have been inconsistently related to residents' health, possibly due to variations in residents' sensitivity to such cues. This study sought to investigate the degree to which children's predisposition to eat upon exposure to food environment and food cues (external eating), could explain differences in strength of associations between their food consumption and the type of food outlets and marketing strategies present in their neighborhood. Data were obtained from 616 6-12 y.o. children recruited into a population-based cross-sectional study in which food consumption was measured through a 24-h food recall and responsiveness to food cues measured using the external eating scale. The proportion of food retailers within 3 km of residence considered as "healthful" was calculated using a Geographical Information System. Neighborhood exposure to food marketing strategies (displays, discount frequency, variety, and price) for vegetables and soft drinks were derived from a geocoded digital marketing database. Adjusted mixed models with spatial covariance tested interaction effects of food environment indicators and external eating on food consumption. In children with higher external eating scores, healthful food consumption was more positively related to vegetable displays, and more negatively to the display and variety of soft drinks. No interactions were observed for unhealthful food consumption and no main effects of food environment indicators were found on food consumption. Children differ in their responsiveness to marketing-related visual food cues on the basis of their external eating phenotype. Strategies aiming to increase the promotion of healthful relative to unhealthful food products in stores may be particularly beneficial for children identified as being more responsive to food cues.

Strategies and Tools for Eco-Efficient Local Food Supply Scenarios

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Paola Caputo

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Considering the wide demand for daily meals, the issue of the institutional food system has become very important in highly developed societies and, also, how it affects the flow of energy and matter within a territory. This research originates from a wide multi-disciplinary project aimed at developing a self-sufficient approach to improve the institutional food system in an area of Northern Italy. Thus, the aim of this research is to give some guidelines to implement ideal scenarios of food production, processing, consumption, and waste management at the local level. To that end, the organization of the supply and demand within the local institutional food system is inquired. A methodology has been developed to analyze the main energy flows and matter related to this catering, and to outline possible optimal scenarios. This methodology also allows to analyze case studies and to formulate improvements in order to reduce their energy consumption while exploring all the steps of the supply chain (considering the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA approach. The use of quantitative indicators allows a comparison of the impacts related to the different steps characterizing the suggested scenarios. This paper presents results related to a test in the context of institutional catering in public schools.

Toxicological evaluation of some Malaysian locally processed raw food products.

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Sharif, R; Ghazali, A R; Rajab, N F; Haron, H; Osman, F

2008-01-01

Malaysian locally processed raw food products are widely used as main ingredients in local cooking. Previous studies showed that these food products have a positive correlation with the incidence of cancer. The cytotoxicity effect was evaluated using MTT assay (3-(4,5-dimetil-2-thiazolil)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide) against Chang liver cells at 2000 microg/ml following 72 h incubation. Findings showed all methanol extracts caused a tremendous drop in the percentage of cell viability at 2000 microg/ml (shrimp paste - 41.69+/-3.36%, salted fish - 37.2+/-1.06%, dried shrimp - 40.32+/-1.8%, pfood showed that shrimp paste did not comply with the protein requirement (Food Act 1983. Salt was found in every sample with the highest percentage being detected in shrimp paste which exceeded 20%. Following heavy metal analysis (arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury), arsenic was found in every sample with dried shrimps showing the highest value as compared to the other samples (6.16 mg/kg). In conclusion, several food extracts showed cytotoxic effect but did not cause DNA damage against Chang liver cells. Salt was found as the main additive and arsenic was present in every sample, which could be the probable cause of the toxicity effects observed.

Nutritional value of locally produced foods and potential for developing age-appropriate complementary foods for children under 2 years of age in Mali.

Science.gov (United States)

Ayoya, Mohamed Ag; Kodio, Joseph; Iknane, Akory Ag; Sodjinou, Roger

2010-09-01

Promotion of dietary diversity using locally available nutritious foods is an effective approach in low-income areas to improve the quality of young children's diet and, hence, their growth and development. To identify the nutritional values of locally acceptable, feasible, affordable, and sustainable foods and develop a number of recipes that could be used to complement effectively nutrient intakes provided through breastfeeding to children 6 to 23 months of age in Bandiagara, Mali. Structured questionnaires were used to obtain lists of all locally available foods during village assembly meetings and identify the food basket of households and child feeding practices during interviews with mothers and fathers. The nutritional values of the foods were estimated, and the Malian food composition table was used to identify the combinations that would result in the most nutritious recipes. Breastfeeding was widely practiced, but the rate of exclusive breastfeeding during the first 6 months of life was extremely low (7%). The practice of early introduction of water and complementary foods was a problem. Forty recipes for improved dishes, including puddings, drinks and juices, purees, salads, and soups, were proposed. The nutritional values of the 10 most nutritious of these recipes, the types and quantities of the ingredients, and the method of preparation of each recipe are described. Locally produced indigenous foods in rural Mali were used to develop energy- and nutrient-dense complementary foods for children. Further research is needed to test the short- and long-term effects of consuming these dishes on the nutritional status of children 6 to 23 months of age in Mali.

Change in the family food environment is associated with positive dietary change in children

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Hendrie Gilly

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The family food environment is an important influence in the development of children’s dietary habits. Research suggests that influences of current dietary behaviour and behaviour change may differ. The aims of this paper were to: (1 investigate the association between the food environment at baseline and change in children’s saturated fat intake; and (2 to explore whether a change in the food environment was associated with a change in children’s saturated fat intake. Method Secondary analysis of a 12 week cluster randomised controlled trial in 133 4-13 year old children. Families were randomly allocated to parental education regarding changing to reduced-fat dairy foods or a comparison non-dietary behaviour. The interventions were family focused. Parents received education from a dietitian in 3x30minute sessions to facilitate behaviour change. Parents completed a comprehensive questionnaire capturing three domains of the food environment – Parent knowledge and attitudes; shaping practices; and behaviours and role modelling. Children’s dietary intake was assessed via multiple 24-hour recalls at baseline and week 12. Changes in the family food environment and primary outcome (saturated fat were calculated. Hierarchical linear regression models were performed to explore the association between baseline and change in food environment constructs and change in saturated fat intake. Standardised Beta are presented (p Results After adjustments for child and family demographics, higher levels of perceived food availability (β=-0.2 at baseline was associated with greater reduction in saturated fat intake, where as higher perceived responsibility (β=0.2, restriction (β=0.3 and pressure to eat (β=0.3 were associated with lesser change in saturated fat. An increase in nutrition knowledge (β=-0.2, perceived responsibility (β=-0.3 and restriction (β=-0.3 from baseline to week 12 were associated with greater reduction in

Recent experiences in the development of locally-produced ready to use foods

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ryan, Kelsey; Manary, Mark

2014-01-01

Ready-to-use foods for treatment of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) are micronutrient-fortified, lipid pastes containing roasted peanuts, oil, micronutrients, sugar, soy and/or dairy ingredient powders. The benefits of pastes like ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF), ready-to-use supplementary food (RUSF), and lipid nutrient supplements (LNS) for the treatment of nutritional maladies are that they are shelf-stable due to their low water activity, they are easily transportable, and they can be eaten as-is. Since the development of ready-to-use foods, cost reduction and local production experimentation have been ongoing. Attempts to replace ingredients like skim milk powder with alternate dairy protein ingredients or non-animal ingredients have been reported, but little food and process development information has been revealed. Linear programming or least-cost optimization mathematical models have been employed to help design low cost paste formulas from a selection of ingredients that also meet nutritional requirements. A new user-friendly tool can be used to develop new formulas that incorporate locally-sourced ingredients. New approaches to ingredient utilization are necessary for future ready-to-use food production and will require the development of novel processes for local ingredients compared to traditional pastes. The challenges of incorporating novel ingredients include processing changes, flavor and acceptability, and meeting nutrient requirements. Our research is designed to not only look at substitute ingredients, but also to optimize processing conditions in order to reduce cost by energy savings, extended shelf-life, and lower nutrient degradation. An RUSF using a novel dairy ingredient, whey permeate, was recently developed and is currently being tested in a prospective, double-blind randomized clinical trial for children with MAM in Malawi. Recent research in the development and testing of ready-to-use foods for MAM include a programmatic study

Dietary inequalities: what is the evidence for the effect of the neighbourhood food environment?

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Christina; Moon, Graham; Baird, Janis

2016-01-01

This review summarises the evidence for inequalities in community and consumer nutrition environments from ten previous review articles, and also assesses the evidence for the effect of the community and consumer nutrition environments on dietary intake. There is evidence for inequalities in food access in the US but trends are less apparent in other developed countries. There is a trend for greater access and availability to healthy and less healthy foods relating to better and poorer dietary outcomes respectively. Trends for price show that higher prices of healthy foods are associated with better dietary outcomes. More nuanced measures of the food environment, including multi-dimensional and individualised approaches, would enhance the state of the evidence and help inform future interventions. PMID:24200470

A Systematic Examination of Food Intake and Adaptation to the Food Environment by Refugees Settled in the United States1234

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Youfa; Min, Jungwon; Harris, Kisa; Khuri, Jacob; Anderson, Laura M

2016-01-01

The United States is the largest refugee resettlement country in the world. Refugees may face health-related challenges after resettlement in the United States, including higher rates of chronic diseases due to problems such as language barriers and difficulty adapting to new food environments. However, reported refugee diet challenges varied, and no systematic examination has been reported. This study examined refugee food intake pre- and postresettlement in the United States and differences in intake across various refugee groups. We systematically reviewed relevant studies that reported on refugee food intake and adaptation to the US food environment. We searched PubMed for literature published between January 1985 and April 2015, including cross-sectional and prospective studies. Eighteen studies met inclusion criteria. Limited research has been conducted, and most studies were based on small convenience samples. In general, refugees increased meat and egg consumption after resettling in the United States. Changes in refugee intake of vegetables, fruits, and dairy products varied by socioeconomic status, food insecurity, past food deprivation experience, length of stay in the United States, region of origin, and age. South Asians were more likely to maintain traditional diets, and increased age was associated with more conservative and traditional diets. Despite the abundance of food in the United States, postresettlement refugees reported difficulty in finding familiar or healthy foods. More research with larger samples and follow-up data are needed to study how refugees adapt to the US food environment and what factors may influence their food- and health-related outcomes. The work could inform future interventions to promote healthy eating and living among refugees and help to reduce health disparities. PMID:28140324

Neighborhood and home food environment and children's diet and obesity: Evidence from military personnel's installation assignment.

Science.gov (United States)

Shier, Victoria; Nicosia, Nancy; Datar, Ashlesha

2016-06-01

Research and policy initiatives are increasingly focused on the role of neighborhood food environment in children's diet and obesity. However, existing evidence relies on observational data that is limited by neighborhood selection bias. The Military Teenagers' Environments, Exercise, and Nutrition Study (M-TEENS) leverages the quasi-random variation in neighborhood environment generated by military personnel's assignment to installations to examine whether neighborhood food environments are associated with children's dietary behaviors and BMI. Our results suggest that neither the actual nor the perceived availability of particular food outlets in the neighborhood is associated with children's diet or BMI. The availability of supermarkets and convenience stores in the neighborhood was not associated with where families shop for food or children's dietary behaviors. Further, the type of store that families shop at was not associated with the healthiness of food available at home. Similarly, availability of fast food and restaurants was unrelated to children's dietary behaviors or how often children eat fast food or restaurant meals. However, the healthiness of food available at home was associated with healthy dietary behaviors while eating at fast food outlets and restaurants were associated with unhealthy dietary behaviors in children. Further, parental supervision, including limits on snack foods and meals eaten as a family, was associated with dietary behaviors. These findings suggest that focusing only on the neighborhood food environment may ignore important factors that influence children's outcomes. Future research should also consider how families make decisions about what foods to purchase, where to shop for foods and eating out, how closely to monitor their children's food intake, and, ultimately how these decisions collectively impact children's outcomes. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Family Food Security and Children’s Environment: A Comprehensive Analysis with Structural Equation Modeling

OpenAIRE

Che Wan Jasimah bt Wan Mohamed Radzi; Huang Hui; Nur Anisah Binti Mohamed @ A. Rahman; Hashem Salarzadeh Jenatabadi

2017-01-01

Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) has been used extensively in sustainability studies to model relationships among latent and manifest variables. This paper provides a tutorial exposition of the SEM approach in food security studies and introduces a basic framework based on family food security and children’s environment sustainability. This framework includes family food security and three main concepts representing children’s environment, including children’s BMI, health, and school perfor...

Development of probiotic mutandabota, a locally sustainable functional food incorporating Lactobacillus rhamnosus

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Mpofu, A.

2015-01-01

Development of probiotic mutandabota, a locally sustainable functional food incorporating Lactobacillus rhamnosus

Mutandabota or umlondo is an indigenous food that is consumed in Southern Africa on a daily basis. The product is made by

The community and consumer food environment and children’s diet: a systematic review

OpenAIRE

Engler-Stringer, Rachel; Le, Ha; Gerrard, Angela; Muhajarine, Nazeem

2014-01-01

Background While there is a growing body of research on food environments for children, there has not been a published comprehensive review to date evaluating food environments outside the home and school and their relationship with diet in children. The purpose of this paper is to review evidence on the influence of the community and consumer nutrition environments on the diet of children under the age of 18 years. Methods Our search strategy included a combination of both subject heading se...

Radioactive contamination in environment and food in Poland in 1992

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Grabowski, D.; Muszynski, W.; Petrykowska, M.; Rubel, B.; Smagala, G.; Wilgos, J.

1993-01-01

The level analysis of the level of radioactive contamination in environment and food samples was carried out in Poland in 1992. The results were compared to the data from 1985-1991 period. Since the Chernobyl accident gradual decrease of contamination level has been stated. The gamma dose rate and the contamination of air, fallout, tap and surface water were at the level of 1985. Still higher contamination level of cesium isotopes in soil has been reported and as a consequence food contamination was higher particularly the animal food. Actually, the source of additional dose is ingestion of artificial isotopes with food as a result of food contamination. The average effective dose equivalent, due to the contaminated food consumption, was estimated at the level 15 μSv for a Pole in 1992. (author). 13 refs, 6 figs, 20 tabs

Going Locavore: Teaching Students about the Benefits of Food Produced Locally

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Farenga, Stephen; Ness, Daniel

2010-01-01

A term that is fairly new to the English vernacular is "locavore." This term describes anyone who eats food that is grown locally. A locavore diet consists of both perishable and imperishable food that is generally produced within a 100-mile radius of one's home. The purpose of the movement is not only to eat freshly prepared meals, but also to…

Street Food Environment in Maputo (STOOD Map): a Cross-Sectional Study in Mozambique.

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Gelormini, Marcello; Damasceno, Albertino; Lopes, Simão António; Maló, Sérgio; Chongole, Célia; Muholove, Paulino; Casal, Susana; Pinho, Olívia; Moreira, Pedro; Padrão, Patrícia; Lunet, Nuno

2015-08-05

Street food represents a cultural, social, and economic phenomenon that is typical of urbanized areas, directly linked with a more sedentary lifestyle and providing a very accessible and inexpensive source of nutrition. Food advertising may contribute to shaping consumers' preferences and has the potential to drive the supply of specific foods. The purpose of this study is to characterize the street food offerings available to the urban population of Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, and the billboard food advertising in the same setting. People selling ready-to-eat foods, beverages, or snacks from venues such as carts, trucks, stands, and a variety of improvised informal setups (eg, shopping carts, trunks of cars, sides of vans, blankets on the sidewalk, etc) will be identified in the district of KaMpfumu. We will gather information about the actual food being sold through direct observation and interviews to vendors, and from the billboard advertising in the same areas. A second phase of the research entails collecting food samples to be analyzed in a specialized laboratory. The street food environment will be characterized, overall and according to socioeconomic and physical characteristics of the neighborhood, using descriptive statistics and spatial analysis. The study protocol was approved by the National Committee for Bioethics for Health in Mozambique. Data collection, including the identification of street food vending sites and billboard advertising, started on October 20, 2014, and lasted for 1 month. The collection of food samples took place in December 2014, and the bromatological analyses are expected to be concluded in August 2015. The district of KaMpfumu is the wealthiest and most urbanized in Maputo, and it is the area with the highest concentration and variety of street food vendors. The expected results may yield important information to assess the nutritional environment and the characteristics of the foods to which a great majority of

Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food and food environment harbouring tetM and ermB resistance genes.

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Haubert, L; Mendonça, M; Lopes, G V; de Itapema Cardoso, M R; da Silva, W P

2016-01-01

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen that has become an important cause of human and animal diseases worldwide. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the serotypes, virulence potential, antimicrobial resistance profile, and genetic relationships of 50 L. monocytogenes isolates from food and food environment in southern Brazil. In this study, the majority of L. monocytogenes isolates belonged to the serotypes 1/2b (42%) and 4b (26%), which are the main serotypes associated with human listeriosis. In addition, all isolates harboured internalin genes (inlA, inlC, inlJ), indicating a virulence potential. The isolates were sensitive to most of the antimicrobial compounds analysed, and five isolates (10%) were multi-resistant. Two isolates harboured antimicrobial resistance genes (tetM and ermB) and in one of them, the gene was present in the plasmid. Moreover, according to the pulsed field gel electrophoresis assay, two multi-resistant isolates were a single clone isolated from food and the processing plant. The isolates were susceptible to the most frequently used antibiotics for listeriosis treatment. However, the presence of multidrug-resistant isolates and antimicrobial resistance genes including in the plasmid could even be transferred between bacterial species, suggesting a potential health risk to consumers and a potential risk of spreading multi-resistance genes to other bacteria. Listeria monocytogenes is an important agent of foodborne diseases. The results of this study suggest a potential capacity of L. monocytogenes isolates from food and food environment to cause human infections. Antimicrobial multi-resistance profiles were detected in 10%, and two isolates harboured tetM and ermB resistance genes. Moreover, the present research can help to build up a better knowledge about antimicrobial resistance of L. monocytogenes. Additionally, we found one isolate carrying tetM resistance gene in a plasmid, that suggests a possible transmission

Contributing to the Food Sovereignty Debate: Re-Linking Local Production and Consumption

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quaye, W.; Ruivenkamp, G.T.P.; Frempong, G.; Jongerden, J.P.

2013-01-01

Agri-based economies especially those in developing countries are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign markets and losing their autonomy in food production and distribution. However, there are possibilities to re-link local production and consumption. That is reconnecting local productive

The school food environment associations with adolescent soft drink and snack consumption.

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van der Horst, Klazine; Timperio, Anna; Crawford, David; Roberts, Rebecca; Brug, Johannes; Oenema, Anke

2008-09-01

Because students may purchase food and drinks in and around their schools, the school food environment may be important for obesity-related eating behaviors such as soft drink and snack consumption. However, research exploring the associations between school environments and specific eating behaviors is sparse. Associations of the availability of canteen food and drinks, the presence of food stores around schools, and individual cognitions (attitudes, norms, modeling, perceived behavioral control, and intentions) with soft drink and snack consumption were examined in a cross-sectional study (2005-2006) among 1,293 adolescents aged 12-15 years. Soft drink and snack consumption and related cognitions were assessed with self-administered questionnaires. The presence of food stores and the distance to the nearest food store were calculated within a 500-meter buffer around each school. Data on the availability of soft drinks and snacks in school canteens were gathered by observation. In 2007, multilevel regression models were run to analyze associations and mediation pathways between cognitions, environmental factors, and behaviors. Adolescents' attitudes, subjective norms, parental and peer modeling, and intentions were positively associated with soft drink and snack consumption. There was an inverse association between the distance to the nearest store and the number of small food stores with soft drink consumption. These effects were mediated partly by cognitions. This study provided little evidence for associations of environmental factors in the school environment with soft drink and snack consumption. Individual cognitions appeared to be stronger correlates of intake than physical school-environmental factors. Longitudinal research is needed to confirm these findings.

Research issues: the food environment and obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Mattes, Richard; Foster, Gary D

2014-12-01

"Research Issues: The Food Environment and Obesity" is an article series commissioned by the American Society for Nutrition and The Obesity Society in an attempt to consider the state of understanding on this topic and identify key knowledge gaps. Roberts and Karl focus on the role of energy density in the regulation of energy intake and body weight and offer recommendations for prioritizing research. Finkelstein et al examine food and beverage purchases as a function of price changes and conclude that targeted food taxes and subsidies alone are unlikely to substantially affect obesity. Pereira points out the difficulty in establishing the strength of the association between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and weight gain and obesity. Johnson and Wardle review the effects of palatability and variety on eating behavior and weight. Livingstone and Pourshahidi examine the impact of portion size manipulations on energy intake and weight management and find that consumers generally tend to eat proportionally more as portion size increases. Kant focuses on the efficacy and effectiveness of eating frequency manipulation for body weight management and finds that such manipulation has consistently yielded null results. Finally, Gordon-Larsen identifies several limitations of the existing literature regarding neighborhood access to healthy foods. © 2014 American Society for Nutrition.

Using means-end chain analysis to reveal consumers' motivation for buying local foods: An exploratory study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Poppy Arsil

2016-11-01

Full Text Available This article utilizes and discusses specific aspects of Means-End Chain (MEC analysis for understanding of the motives of Indonesian consumers who are involved in purchasing local foods. The MEC theory is used as a measure of attributes, consequences, and values of locally produced products involving specific aspects of this theory namely laddering methods of administration, content analysis procedure, constructing and interpreting Hierarchy Value Map (HVM. The results of the study indicate that MEC approach is a powerful method to reveal consumer motivation of local foods when associated with the various cultural groupings identified by the study particular between Javanese and Non-Javanese consumers. This study offers a practical implication and source of knowledge for other future studies and policies in term of (a a new approach for understanding the motives behind purchasing local foods for Indonesia consumers, and (b developing new categories of attributes, consequences and values of local foods.

Sustainability of Local and Global Food Chains: Introduction to the Special Issue

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gianluca Brunori

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Sustainability assessment is one of the keys to competition by food supply chains over sustainability. The way it is conceived and embodied into decision-makers’ choices affects the competitiveness of local and global chains. Science-based assessment methodologies have made substantial progress, but uncertainties—as well as interests at stake—are high. There are no science-based methods that are able to give an unchallenged verdict over the sustainability performance of a firm, let alone a supply chain. Assessment methods are more suited for medium-large firm dimensions, as planning, monitoring, and reporting are costly. Moreover, the availability of data affects the choice of parameters to be measured, and many claims of local food are not easily measurable. To give local chains a chance to operate on a level playing field, there is the need to re-think sustainability assessment processes and tailor them to the characteristics of the analysed supply chains. We indicate seven key points on which we think scholars should focus their attention when dealing with food supply chain sustainability assessment.

Dietary inequalities: what is the evidence for the effect of the neighbourhood food environment?

Science.gov (United States)

Black, Christina; Moon, Graham; Baird, Janis

2014-05-01

This review summarises the evidence for inequalities in community and consumer nutrition environments from ten previous review articles, and also assesses the evidence for the effect of the community and consumer nutrition environments on dietary intake. There is evidence for inequalities in food access in the US but trends are less apparent in other developed countries. There is a trend for greater access and availability to healthy and less healthy foods relating to better and poorer dietary outcomes respectively. Trends for price show that higher prices of healthy foods are associated with better dietary outcomes. More nuanced measures of the food environment, including multidimensional and individualised approaches, would enhance the state of the evidence and help inform future interventions. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.

National outbreak of Salmonella Give linked to a local food manufacturer in Malta, October 2016.

Science.gov (United States)

Donachie, A; Melillo, T; Bubba, L; Hartman, H; Borg, M-L

2018-06-26

Salmonella Give is a rare serotype across Europe. In October 2016, a national outbreak of S. Give occurred in Malta. We describe the epidemiological, environmental, microbiological and veterinary investigations. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on human, food, environmental and veterinary isolates. Thirty-six human cases were reported between October and November 2016, 10 (28%) of whom required hospitalisation. Twenty-six (72%) cases were linked to four restaurants. S. Give was isolated from ready-to-eat antipasti served by three restaurants which were all supplied by the same local food manufacturer. Food-trace-back investigations identified S. Give in packaged bean dips, ham, pork and an asymptomatic food handler at the manufacturer; inspections found inadequate separation between raw and ready-to-eat food during processing. WGS indicated two genetically distinguishable strains of S. Give with two distinct clusters identified; one cluster linked to the local food manufacturer and a second linked to veterinary samples. Epidemiological, environmental and WGS evidence pointed towards cross-contamination of raw and ready-to-eat foods at the local manufacturer as the likely source of one cluster. Severity of illness indicates a high virulence of this specific serotype. To prevent future cases and outbreaks, adherence to food safety practices at manufacturing level need to be reinforced.

The global potential of local peri-urban food production

Science.gov (United States)

Kriewald, Steffen; Garcia Cantu Ros, Anselmo; Sterzel, Till; Kropp, Jürgen P.

2013-04-01

One big challenge for the rest of the 21st century will be the massive urbanisation. It is expected that more than 7 out of 10 persons will live in a city by the year 2050. Crucial developments towards a sustainable future will therefore take place in cities. One important approach for a sustainable city development is to re-localize food production and to close urban nutrient cycles through better waste management. The re-location of food production avoids CO2 emissions from transportation of food to cities and can also generate income for inhabitants. Cities are by definition locations where fertility accumulates. As cities are often built along rivers, their soils are often fertile. Furthermore, labour force and the possibility of producing fertilizer from human fecal matter within the city promises sustainable nutrients cycles. Although urban and peri-urban agriculture can be found in many cities worldwide and already have a substantial contribution to food supply, it has not jet been comprehensibly structured by research. We combine several worldwide data sets to determine the supply of cities with regional food production, where regional is defined as a production that occurs very close to the consumption within the peri-urban area. Therefore, urban areas are not defined by administrative boundaries but by connected built-up urban areas, and peri-urban area by the surrounding area with the same size multiplied with a scaling parameter. Both together accumulate to an urban-bio-region (UBR). With regard to national food consumption, a linear program achieves the best possible yield on agricultural areas and allows the computation of the fraction of population, which can be nourished. Additionally, several climate scenarios and different dietary patterns were considered. To close the gap between single case studies and to provide a quantitative overview of the global potential of peri-urban food production we used high resolution land-use data Global Land Cover

Changes in the food environment over time: examining 40 years of data in the Framingham Heart Study.

Science.gov (United States)

James, Peter; Seward, Michael W; James O'Malley, A; Subramanian, S V; Block, Jason P

2017-06-24

Research has explored associations between diet, body weight, and the food environment; however, few studies have examined historical trends in food environments. In the Framingham Heart Study Offspring (N = 3321) and Omni (N = 447) cohorts, we created food environment metrics in four Massachusetts towns utilizing geocoded residential, workplace, and food establishment addresses from 1971 to 2008. We created multilevel models adjusted for age, sex, education, and census tract poverty to examine trends in home, workplace, and commuting food environments. Proximity to and density of supermarkets, fast-food, full service restaurants, convenience stores, and bakeries increased over time for residential, workplace, and commuting environments; exposure to grocery stores decreased. The greatest increase in access was for supermarkets, with residential distance to the closest supermarket 1406 m closer (95% CI 1303 m, 1508 m) by 2005-2008 than in 1971-1975. Although poorer census tracts had higher access to fast-food restaurants consistently across follow-up, this disparity dissipated over time, due to larger increases in proximity to fast-food in wealthier neighborhoods. Access to most food establishment types increased over time, with similar trends across home, workplace, and commuter environments.

Using Personal Water Footprints to Identify Consumer Food Choices that Influence the Conservation of Local Water Resources

Science.gov (United States)

Marrin, D. L.

2015-12-01

As the global demand for water and food escalates, the emphasis is on supply side factors rather than demand side factors such as consumers, whose personal water footprints are dominated (>90%) by food. Personal footprints include the water embedded in foods that are produced locally as well as those imported, raising the question of whether local shifts in people's food choices and habits could assist in addressing local water shortages. The current situation in California is interesting in that drought has affected an agriculturally productive region where a substantial portion of its food products are consumed by the state's large population. Unlike most agricultural regions where green water is the primary source of water for crops, California's arid climate demands an enormous volume of blue water as irrigation from its dwindling surface and ground water resources. Although California exports many of its food products, enough is consumed in-state so that residents making relatively minor shifts their food choices could save as much local blue water as their implementing more drastic reductions in household water use (comprising food group on both a caloric and gravimetric basis. Another change is wasting less food, which is a shared responsibility among consumers, producers and retailers; however, consumers' actions and preferences ultimately drive much of the waste. Personal water footprints suggest a role for individuals in conserving local water resources that is neither readily obvious nor a major focus of most conservation programs.

Food Labeling and Consumer Associations with Health, Safety, and Environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Sax, Joanna K; Doran, Neal

2016-12-01

The food supply is complicated and consumers are increasingly calling for labeling on food to be more informative. In particular, consumers are asking for the labeling of food derived from genetically modified organisms (GMO) based on health, safety, and environmental concerns. At issue is whether the labels that are sought would accurately provide the information desired. The present study examined consumer (n = 181) perceptions of health, safety and the environment for foods labeled organic, natural, fat free or low fat, GMO, or non-GMO. Findings indicated that respondents consistently believed that foods labeled GMO are less healthy, safe and environmentally-friendly compared to all other labels (ps labels mean something to consumers, but that a disconnect may exist between the meaning associated with the label and the scientific consensus for GMO food. These findings may provide insight for the development of labels that provide information that consumers seek.

Food Insecurity in Urban and Rural Areas in Central Brazil: Transition from Locally Produced Foods to Processed Items.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodrigues, Livia Penna Firme; Carvalho, Raissa Costa; Maciel, Agatha; Otanasio, Polyanna Nunes; Garavello, Maria Elisa de Paula Eduardo; Nardoto, Gabriela Bielefeld

2016-01-01

Aiming to investigate the effect of diet and food consumption with regard to health, environment, and economy in light of nutrition ecology, we studied the dimensions of nutrition and food security in urban and rural settings in the region of Chapada dos Veadeiros, Central Brazil. We tracked diet and food consumption through carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios in fingernails of these inhabitants together with food intake data as a proxy for their diet patterns. We estimated household food insecurity by using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Nutrition and food insecurity was observed in both urban and rural areas, but was accentuated in rural settings. The diet pattern had high δ(13)C values in fingernails and low δ(15)N. Both urban and rural areas have diets with low diversity and relying on low-quality processed food staples at the same time that nutrition and food insecurity is quite high in the region.

How can GPS technology help us better understand exposure to the food environment? A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Cetateanu, Andreea; Jones, Andy

2016-12-01

Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are increasingly being used to objectively assess movement patterns of people related to health behaviours. However research detailing their application to the food environment is scarce. This systematic review examines the application of GPS in studies of exposure to food environments and their potential influences on health. Based on an initial scoping exercise, published articles to be included in the systematic review were identified from four electronic databases and reference lists and were appraised and analysed, the final cut-off date for inclusion being January 2015. Included studies used GPS to identify location of individuals in relation to food outlets and link that to health or diet outcomes. They were appraised against a set of quality criteria. Six studies met the inclusion criteria, which were appraised to be of moderate quality. Newer studies had a higher quality score. Associations between observed mobility patterns in the food environment and diet related outcomes were equivocal. Findings agreed that traditional food exposure measures overestimate the importance of the home food environment. The use of GPS to measure exposure to the food environment is still in its infancy yet holds much potential. There are considerable variations and challenges in developing and standardising the methods used to assess exposure.

The Porta Palazzo farmers’ market: local food, regulations and changing traditions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachel Eden Black

2005-05-01

Full Text Available Cet article s’intéresse à l’impact des réglementations sur les marchés de producteurs en Italie, ainsi qu’à l’approvisionnement local et les choix du consommateur. En regardant la vie quotidienne du marché, on réalise que les réglementations ne sont pas seulement imposées, mais aussi négociées et interprétées en fonction des besoins locaux. Des changements dans les attitudes concernant l’hygiène des aliments dévoilent un discours sur la modernité et met en valeur la lutte de la nouvelle Italie pour s’adapter à une société de plus en plus « consumériste »tout en cherchant à garder les traditions et l’ alimentation locale. Malgré la compétition des hypermarchés et les réglementations de plus en plus restrictives, les marchés de producteurs ont une clientèle très fidèle et la plus jeune génération a commencé à s’intéresser à l’alimentation produite localement. Ce nouveau groupe a en plus un grand désir de participer à la vie sociale du marché, aspect qui rend ces institutions publiques uniques.This article looks at the impact of regulations on farmers’ markets in Italy, local food supply and provisioning choices. By exploring the everyday running of the market, it becomes clear that regulations are not just imposed, but rather negotiated and interpreted to fit local needs. Changing attitudes towards food hygiene also uncover discourses of modernity and struggles to adapt to the new Italian ‘consumer society’ while holding onto tradition and local food. Despite competition from supermarkets and increasingly restrictive regulations, farmers’ markets in Italy have a faithful core group of clients and interest is slowly growing on the part of a young generation who want to eat locally and share in the social life of the market.

Sustainability of Global and Local Food Value Chains: An Empirical Comparison of Peruvian and Belgian Asparagus