Consumers and food environments

Measuring Food Environments

Food environments have been described as having multiple aspects, including the Community Food Environment, the Consumer Food Environment, Organisational and Information Food Environments. The Community Food Environment describes the geographical location of food outlets, while the Consumer Food Environment describes what consumers encounter within outlets.

PANORG has developed instruments for measuring food availability in Community Food Environments and the availability of indicator food items in Consumer Food Environments. For information on the instruments used by PANORG, see: Measuring rural food environments within Murrumbidgee Health Network, NSW: Methodology.

A pilot project has used these measures to map food availability in three small rural towns in NSW. The report on this project follows.

Measuring rural food environments within Murrumbidgee Health Local Network, NSW. (2011) PANORG: Sydney.
View Report

Measuring rural food environments within Murrumbidgee Health Network, NSW: Methodology. (2011) PANORG: Sydney.
View Report

Publication:

Innes-Hughes C., Boylan S., King L, and Lobb E. Measuring the food environment in three rural towns in New South Wales, Australia. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 2012. 23(2):134-40.

Consumer Nutrition Literacy

Consumers are exposed to nutrition information every day, but many messages are inaccurate (e.g. marketing messages) or not understood. Investigating consumers' understanding and testing comprehension of nutrition messages, in the form of labels and terms, are important applied research issues.

In collaboration with Cancer Council NSW, PANORG has conducted a number of studies on aspects of consumer nutrition literacy.

Publications:

Watson W, Chapman K, King L, Kelly B, Hughes C, Louie JCY, Crawford J, Gill T. How well do Australian shoppers understand energy terms on food labels? Public Health Nutrition 2012;(accepted for publication 14 February 2012)

King L, Watson W, Kelly B, Chapman K, Louise J, Gill T, Crawford J. Do we provide meaningful guidance for healthy eating? An investigation into consumers’ interpretation of frequency consumption terms. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 2012; (accepted for publication December 2011)

Kelly B, Hughes C, Chapman K, Louie J, Dixon H, Crawford J, King L, Daube M, Slevin T. Consumer testing of the acceptability and effectiveness of front-of-pack food labelling systems for the Australian grocery market. Health Promot Int, 2009, 24(2): 120-129

The School Canteen Food Environment

In NSW, the Healthy Kids Association (HKA - formerly NSW School Canteen Association) uses their product registration scheme as a means of promoting healthier food choices in schools.

This report by PANORG examined the key nutritional characteristics of food and beverage products that are registered for sale by HKA in school canteens. It provides comparative profiles of the nutritional characteristics of registered products by key nutrient (e.g. total energy, saturated fat), registration category (Green versus Amber) and by product sub-category (e.g. milk based beverages or snack foods).

‘Green’ and ‘Amber’ foods: analysing the nutritional content of food and beverage products registered with Healthy Kids Association.
(2011) PANORG, Sydney.
View Report

Apparent Food Consumption

This Monitoring Update examines non health survey data to describe population patterns of food consumption.

Apparent consumption of selected foods and household food expenditure. Monitoring Update.
(2010) PANORG: Sydney.
View Monitoring Update

Food Security

This Discussion Paper, prepared by PANORG, Heart Foundation NSW and Cancer Council NSW, synthesises current information; considers food security in the context of food supply and access systems; and provides directions for research, policies and programs. It complements the report Food security: options for actions published by the NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition in 2003.

Food security: the what, how, why and where to of food security in NSW. Discussion paper.
(2010) PANORG, Heart Foundation NSW and Cancer Council NSW, Sydney.
View Discussion paper

Soft Drinks

These reports present a range of information, including patterns of soft drink consumption in Australia, links between soft drinks and weight gain and discuss strategies to reduce soft drink consumption.

Soft drinks, weight status and health: a review
(2009) NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition, Sydney.
View report

Soft drinks, weight status and health: health professional update
(2009) NSW Centre for Public Health Nutrition, Sydney.
View update