Australia

Dr Gary Sacks

Senior Research Fellow

Faculty of Health, Deakin Population Health SRC

Melbourne Burwood Campus, Deakin University Melbourne, Australia

Email: Gary Sacks

Professor Bruce Neal

Deputy Executive Director

George Institute Australia

Newtown, Sydney, Australia

Email: Bruce Neal

Professor Amanda Lee

Professor Public Health Policy

School of Public Health

Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland,

Herston, Queensland, Australia

Email: Professor Amanda Lee

Dr Bridget Kelly

Senior Lecturer in Public Health

University of Wollongong

Wollongong, Australia

Email: Dr Bridget Kelly

Ella Robinson

Research Fellow

Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE), Institute for Health Transformation

Deakin University

Burwood VIC, Australia

Email: Ella Robinson

Module	Status (as of July 2021)	Outputs
Overall	Australia’s Food Environment Dashboard was launched in June 2021, showcasing the best-available, most up-to-date data to provide an overall picture of the healthiness of Australia’s food environment
Public Sector (Food EPI)	New Food-EPI reports published March 2019. These progress updates, followed up on actions taken against recommendations made in 2017 reports. The launch of the reports generated national media coverage Repeat of the Food-EPI currently underway. Results due in 2022
Private Sector	Conducted evaluation of BIA-Obesity, including interviews with all companies asking about the impact it had on their company and recommendations for improvement. Repeat assessment of food companies expected in 2023.
Food Composition	“Foodswitch: State of the Food Supply 2019” report published.
Food Labelling
Food Promotion
Food Prices	We have developed standardised ‘optimal’ methods to assess cost and affordability of current and healthy diets in Australia and, with Dr Sally MacKay, in New Zealand. The methods have been adapted for use with different sub-populations, such as Indigenous communities. They can be adapted for use in countries with national food and nutrition intake surveys and food-based dietary guidelines. We have received funding to develop a Healthy Diet ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) APP, and to estimate the cost and affordability of current and healthy diets in key Australian jurisdictions, with Ass Prof Gary Sacks). PhD student Meron Lewis is adapting the methods for use with low socioeconomic groups. With PhD student Christina Zorbas and Dr Katherine Backholer, we are exploring methods to “scrape” food price data from supermarket websites, which would allow for continuous food price monitoring in Australia. implementing Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) protocol in Brisbane and Melbourne (Mandy Lee). Ongoing collection of real-time price data from supermarket websites, including price promotions (Kathryn Backholer)
Food Retail	Monitoring in-store supermarket environments (shelf length, price promotions, end-of-aisle displays, check-outs) in about 100 stores across 4 chains. Monitoring all food outlet types in Victoria, looking at relative density of healthy compared with unhealthy outlets, including change over time.
Food Provision	NSW Health collecting detailed data on food provided in hospitals, using online tool. Need to explore opportunity to analyse that data (might not be possible).
Food Trade & Investment

Sacks, G., Robinson, E., Cameron, A.J., Vanderlee, L., Vandevijvere, S., Swinburn, B. (2020). Benchmarking the Nutrition Related Policies and Commitments of Major Food Companies in Australia, 2018. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17:6118. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17176118

Sacks, G., Robinson. E., Vandevijvere, S., Cameron, A.J., Ni Mhurchu, C., Lee, A., … Swinburn, B. (2019). BIA‐Obesity (Business Impact Assessment—Obesity and population‐level nutrition): A tool and process to assess food company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and population nutrition at the national level. Obesity Reviews, 1-12. doi.org/10.1111/obr.12878

Lee A; Lewis M. Testing the Price of Healthy and Current Diets in Remote Aboriginal Communities to Improve Food Security: Development of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) Methods. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Dec 19;15(12). pii: E2912. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15122912.

Love P, Whelan J, Bell C, Grainger F, Russell C, Lewis M, Lee A. Healthy Diets in Rural Victoria-Cheaper than Unhealthy Alternatives, Yet Unaffordable. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2469.

Lee AJ, Kane S, Lewis M, Good E, Pollard CM, Landrigan TJ and Dick M. Healthy diets ASAP – Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing methods protocol. Nutrition Journal 2018;17:88. doi: org/10.1186/s12937-018-0396-0

Lee A, Affordability of fruit and vegetables and dietary quality worldwide-Commentary, The Lancet Global Health, Invited contribution, Published Online, August 23, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(16)30206-6, 4: October 2016

Lewis M and Lee A, Costing ‘healthy’ food baskets in Australia – A systematic review of food price and affordability monitoring tools, protocols and methods, Public Health Nutrition 19: (16) 2872-2886, published online November 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1368980016002160

Lee AJ, Kane S, Ramsey R, Good E, Dick M Testing the price and affordability of healthy and current (unhealthy) diets and the potential impacts of policy change in Australia, BMC Public Health 2016, 16:315 doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-2996-y

Reports

Neal, B., Sacks, G., Shahid, M., Taylor, F., Huffman, M. The George Institute for Global Health. (2019). FoodSwitch: State of the Food Supply April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.georgeinstitute.org/sites/default/files/food_supply_report.pdf

Policies for tackling obesity and creating healthier food environments 2019 progress update Australian governments March 2019. https://www.foodpolicyindex.org.au/

Inside our Supermarkets Australia 2018: Assessment of company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and nutrition.https://www.insideourfoodcompanies.com.au

Inside our Food and Beverage Manufacturers Australia 2018: Assessment of company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and nutrition.https://www.insideourfoodcompanies.com.au/

Inside our Quick Service Restaurants Australia 2018: Assessment of company policies and commitments related to obesity prevention and nutrition.https://www.insideourfoodcompanies.com.au/

Policies for tackling obesity and creating healthier food environments Scorecard and priority recommendations for Australian governments. 2017 Food policy Index. https://www.insideourfoodcompanies.com.au/

A healthy diet is cheaper than junk food but a good diet is still too expensive for some. The Conversation, May 25, 2016 https://theconversation.com/a-healthy-diet-is-cheaper-than-junk-food-but-a-good-diet-is-still-too-expensive-for-some-57873

Are healthy diets really more expensive. TAPPC Findings brief https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=2ahUKEwihuLKBrNHhAhVSJHIKHc9UDucQFjAKegQIAhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreventioncentre.org.au%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F03%2F1702_FB_LEE_4p_final_lr.pdf&usg=AOvVaw1KJYb0r03csIF8FCY6VCyI

Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) survey, Canberra: The price, price differential and affordability of current (unhealthy) and healthy diets and potential impacts of policy change; Final report to ACT Health, 20 May 2016 (Lee A, Kane S, Lewis M)

Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) survey, Sydney: The price, price differential and affordability of current (unhealthy) and healthy diets and potential impacts of policy change; Final report to NSW Department of Health, 20 May 2016 (Lee A, Kane S, Lewis M)

Presentations

Lee A, Kane S and Lewis M, Are heathy diets really more expensive?, International congress of Obesity, World Obesity, Vancouver, Canada, 1-4 May 2016 (poster presentation).

Lee A, Measuring the price of healthy and current diets, International Conference on Diet and Activity Methods, Brisbane September 2015.

Lee A, Monitoring and benchmarking food price and affordability internationally; Third INFORMAS meeting, QUT Brisbane, September 2016.

Lee A, Food Prices Symposium, ISBNPA Conference, Edinburgh June 2015 (co-convenor).

Lee A, Measuring the cost of healthy diets, Food Prices Methods Symposium, ISBNPA Conference, Edinburgh June 2015.

Lee A, Nutrition policy and the price of healthy food, Research Collaboration meeting, Australian China Centre for Public Health, Sun Yat Sen University, Guangzhou, PR China, 10-12 May 2015.

Workshop

National Healthy Diets ASAP Forum, sought and achieved agreement on final methods for nationally standardised food price and affordability surveys. Brisbane, Australia 10 March 2016.

Additional Publications

The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre funded the development of the Healthy Diets ASAP (Australian Standardised Affordability and Pricing) methods. See project website: https://preventioncentre.org.au/our-work/research-projects/are-healthy-diets-really-more-expensive/

The Medical Research Future Fund Boosting Prevention Project (BP3): Diet and chronic disease prevention: supporting implementation of priority actions in the food and nutrition system. See project website: https://preventioncentre.org.au/our-work/research-projects/supporting-priority-actions-in-the-food-and-nutrition-system/ (funding the APP and current development and survey work in Australia)