Food Retail

The primary goals of the food retail module are:

1) Assessing the marketing mix [price, product, promotion and placement] of healthy and unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages within all different types of retail outlets;

2) Assessing the spatial distribution of retail all different types of retail outlets in communities.

Retail food environments are increasingly considered influential in determining dietary behaviours and health outcomes. INFORMAS propose a step-wise framework to monitor and benchmark community and consumer retail food environments that can be used to assess:

1. Density and relative proportion of healthier and less healthy food outlets

2. Measure proximity of healthier and less healthy food outlets to homes/schools/government-owned entities such as hospitals, sport centres and transit-ways.

3. Evaluate the marketing mix for healthier and less healthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages in-store or at point of purchase

4. Compare retail food environments over time and between regions and countries

5. Identify relevant local policy targets and best practices examples related to retail food environments, and ensure retail food environment monitoring addresses relevant local policies

Adrian Cameron (Coordinator)

Associate Professor

Deakin University, Australia

Email: Adrian Cameron

 

Professor Cliona Ni Mhurchu

Cliona Ni Mhurchu

Professor of Nutrition Research at the National Institute for Health Innovation,

The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Email: Professor Cliona Ni Mhurchu

 

Salome Rebello

Senior Lecturer, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health

National University of Singapore

Email: Salome Rebello

 

Julie Brimblecombe

Associate Professor, Nutrition Dietetics & Food

Monash University, Australia

Email: Julie Brimblecombe

 

Neha Khandpur

Senior Research Fellow, Wageningen University

Other affiliations: University of São Paulo; Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

Email: Neha Khandpur

 

Christiam Mendez

Professor,

Universidad de Lima, Peru

Email: Christiam Mendez Lazarte

 

Tailane Scapin

Research Fellow

Deakin University, Australia

Email: Tailane Scapin

 

Mariel White

Research Fellow

Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Mexico

Email: Mariel White

 

Clara Gomez-Donoso

Research Fellow

Deakin University, Australia

Email: Clara Gomez-Donoso

 

van Burgel, E., Fairweather, M., Hill, A., Christian M, FergusonM, Lee A, Funston S, Fredericks B, McMahon E, Pollard C, Brimbelcombe J, Development of a survey tool to assess the environmental determinants of health-enabling food retail practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of remote AustraliaBMC Public Health 24, 442 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17945-9 (This includes food pricing component).

Monitoring the availability of healthy and unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages in community and consumer retail food environments globally (pages 108–119) C. Ni Mhurchu, S. Vandevijvere, W. Waterlander, L. E. Thornton, B. Kelly, A. J. Cameron, W. Snowdon, B. Swinburn and INFORMAS

Read the INFORMAS paper online here

Additional Publications

Below are the INFORMAS protocols to download. Some protocols are still under development – contact us if you would like more information. Please read the terms and conditions regarding the use of the protocols. You must complete this agreement and return it to us if you are using and/or adapting the protocol. You may then use, modify and reproduce the protocol, but the work that results from using the INFORMAS resources remains available to the INFORMAS group and falls under the same ‘copyleft’ principles as the original protocol (i.e., you can’t claim copyright on protocols you develop based on INFORMAS resources). You don’t have to share the whole work that results from using the INFORMAS resources, but are expected to share:

  • Any modifications or updates you make to the protocol (e.g., updates for your own country)
  • The final (cleaned) data as collected using the protocol.