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Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps

This research examines the consumer nutrition environment in the selected neighborhoods identified as food deserts, food swamps, and food oases in Austin, Texas, by considering food availability, food price, food quality, and food labeling. A food auditing instrument M-TxNEA-S (He Jin, San Marcos, T...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Jin, He, Lu, Yongmei
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33799939
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052675
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author Jin, He
Lu, Yongmei
author_facet Jin, He
Lu, Yongmei
author_sort Jin, He
collection PubMed
description This research examines the consumer nutrition environment in the selected neighborhoods identified as food deserts, food swamps, and food oases in Austin, Texas, by considering food availability, food price, food quality, and food labeling. A food auditing instrument M-TxNEA-S (He Jin, San Marcos, TX, USA) was developed to capture the unique dietary culture and food preferences in Texas. A total of 93 food items in 14 grocery stores and supermarkets (GS) and 32 convenience stores (CS) were surveyed. The GS in food swamps and food oases were found to offer significantly more healthy foods than the CS. The availability of healthy food in the GS in the food swamps and food oases is significantly higher than that of the GS from the food deserts; CS in the three neighborhoods did not exhibit a significant difference in healthy food availability. There was no significant difference between the price for the healthy items (lower fat, lower calorie, and whole grain) and that for the regular food options. No significant difference was found for food quality or food labeling between the stores from the different types of neighborhoods. The GS in food deserts are small grocery stores carrying limited ranges of foods. The establishment of larger food stores in the food deserts might not be very rewarding, but opening more small grocery stores with healthier options may alleviate food issues.
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spelling pubmed-79675372021-03-18 Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps Jin, He Lu, Yongmei Int J Environ Res Public Health Article This research examines the consumer nutrition environment in the selected neighborhoods identified as food deserts, food swamps, and food oases in Austin, Texas, by considering food availability, food price, food quality, and food labeling. A food auditing instrument M-TxNEA-S (He Jin, San Marcos, TX, USA) was developed to capture the unique dietary culture and food preferences in Texas. A total of 93 food items in 14 grocery stores and supermarkets (GS) and 32 convenience stores (CS) were surveyed. The GS in food swamps and food oases were found to offer significantly more healthy foods than the CS. The availability of healthy food in the GS in the food swamps and food oases is significantly higher than that of the GS from the food deserts; CS in the three neighborhoods did not exhibit a significant difference in healthy food availability. There was no significant difference between the price for the healthy items (lower fat, lower calorie, and whole grain) and that for the regular food options. No significant difference was found for food quality or food labeling between the stores from the different types of neighborhoods. The GS in food deserts are small grocery stores carrying limited ranges of foods. The establishment of larger food stores in the food deserts might not be very rewarding, but opening more small grocery stores with healthier options may alleviate food issues. MDPI 2021-03-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7967537/ /pubmed/33799939 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052675 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jin, He
Lu, Yongmei
Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title_full Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title_fullStr Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title_full_unstemmed Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title_short Evaluating Consumer Nutrition Environment in Food Deserts and Food Swamps
title_sort evaluating consumer nutrition environment in food deserts and food swamps
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7967537/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33799939
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052675
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