Estimating Dietary Intake from Grocery Shopping Data—A Comparative Validation of Relevant Indicators in Switzerland

In light of the globally increasing prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases, new scalable and non-invasive dietary monitoring techniques are urgently needed. Automatically collected digital receipts from loyalty cards hereby promise to serve as an objective and automatically traceable digital marker for individual food choice behavior and do not require users to manually log individual meal items. With the introduction of the General Data Privacy Regulation in the European Union, millions of consumers gained the right to access their shopping data in a machine-readable form, representing a historic chance to leverage shopping data for scalable monitoring of food choices. Multiple quantitative indicators for evaluating the nutritional quality of food shopping have been suggested, but so far, no comparison has validated the potential of these alternative indicators within a comparative setting. This manuscript thus represents the first study to compare the calibration capacity and to validate the discrimination potential of previously suggested food shopping quality indicators for the nutritional quality of shopped groceries, including the Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling System Dietary Index (FSA-NPS DI), Grocery Purchase Quality Index-2016 (GPQI), Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Healthy Trolley Index (HETI) and Healthy Purchase Index (HPI), checking if any of them performs differently from the others. The hypothesis is that some food shopping quality indicators outperform the others in calibrating and discriminating individual actual dietary intake. To assess the indicators’ potentials, 89 eligible participants completed a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and donated their digital receipts from the loyalty card programs of the two leading Swiss grocery retailers, which represent 70% of the national grocery market. Compared to absolute food and nutrient intake, correlations between density-based relative food and nutrient intake and food shopping data are stronger. The FSA-NPS DI has the best calibration and discrimination performance in classifying participants’ consumption of nutrients and food groups, and seems to be a superior indicator to estimate nutritional quality of a user’s diet based on digital receipts from grocery shopping in Switzerland.

Food and You 2: Northern Ireland. Wave 1-2 Key Findings

Food and You 2 is a biannual representative sample survey, recognised as an official statistic, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The survey measures selfreported consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues amongst adults in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland. Food and You 2 uses a methodology, known as ‘push-to-web’, which is primarily carried out online. Fieldwork for Food and You 2: Wave 1 was conducted between 29th July and 6th October 2020. In Northern Ireland, 2,079 adults from 1,389 households completed the survey, with 57% of respondents completing the survey online. A total of 9,319 adults from 6,408 households across Northern Ireland, Wales, and England completed the survey. Fieldwork for Food and You 2: Wave 2 was conducted between 20th November 2020 and 21st January 2021. In Northern Ireland, 1,566 adults from 997 households completed the survey, with 60% of respondents completing the survey online. A total of 5,900 adults from 3,955 households across Northern Ireland, Wales, and England completed the survey. This survey was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic and so it records the reported attitudes and behaviours under unusual circumstances which have had a significant impact on how and where people buy and eat food, and on levels of household food insecurity. The modules presented in this report include ‘Food we can trust’, ‘Concerns about food’, ’Food security’, ‘Food shopping’, ‘Eating out and takeaways’, ‘Food hypersensitivities’ and ‘Eating at home’. Findings presented in this report refer to data collected in Northern Ireland unless otherwise specified.

A Qualitative Study of Living in a Healthy Food Priority Area in One Seattle, WA, Neighborhood

Policy makers in several major cities have used quantitative data about local food environments to identify neighborhoods with inadequate access to healthy food. We conducted qualitative interviews with residents of a healthy food priority area to assess whether residents’ perceptions of food access were consistent with previous quantitative findings, and to better understand lived experience of food access. We found that proximity to stores, transportation mode, and cost shaped decisions about food shopping. The local food bank played an important role in improving food access. Participants had varied suggestions for ways to improve the neighborhood, both related and unrelated to the food environment.

Food and You 2: Wales Wave 1-2 Key Findings

Food and You 2 is a biannual representative sample survey, recognised as an official statistic, commissioned by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The survey measures selfreported consumer knowledge, attitudes and behaviours related to food safety and other food issues amongst adults in Wales, England, and Northern Ireland. Food and You 2 uses a methodology, known as ‘push-to-web’, which is primarily carried out online. Fieldwork for Food and You 2: Wave 1 was conducted between 29th July and 6th October 2020. In Wales, 2,100 adults from 1,579 households completed the survey, with 68% of respondents completing the survey online. A total of 9,319 adults from 6,408 households across Wales, England, and Northern Ireland completed the survey. Fieldwork for Food and You 2: Wave 2 was conducted between 20th November 2020 and 21st January 2021. In Wales, 1,366 adults from 1,042 households completed the survey, with 67% of respondents completing the survey online. A total of 5,900 adults from 3,955 households across Wales, England, and Northern Ireland completed the survey. This survey was conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic and so it records the reported attitudes and behaviours under unusual circumstances which have had a significant impact on how and where people buy and eat food, and on levels of household food insecurity. The modules presented in this report include ‘Food we can trust’, ‘Concerns about food’, ’Food security’, ‘Food shopping’, ‘Eating out and takeaways’, ‘Food hypersensitivities’ and ‘Eating at home’. Findings presented in this report refer to data collected in Wales unless otherwise specified.

Menelaah kembali perilaku belanja makanan online di era pandemi covid-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the social order of human life, public health, and business operations with so many social restrictions that occur. The phenomenon has changed food shopping behaviour in society. This article aims to analyze changes in food shopping due to the limited space for human mobility and cause all aspects of life to depend on internet technology in Indonesia. Online food delivery platforms or Mobile Food Ordering Applications (MFOA) provide an accessible marketplace for any restaurant which is significantly utilized during the pandemic era. Online food delivery services also carry out advertising activities through internet marketing. The method used in this article is a literature review. The results show that this change in spending patterns is supported by many official policies to stay at home. Advertising messages with content showing sympathy and solidarity are the most sought after by consumers in the pandemic era. The implications of this research can be initial research to conduct more in-depth research in terms of consumer behaviour, internet marketing, and advertising in the context of digital media during the pandemic. Understanding the consumer landscape will enable online food delivery platforms to fulfill their full potential in terms of impacting people's economies, businesses, and quality of life.

Neighborhood Food Environment Associated with Cardiometabolic Health among Predominately Low-income, Urban, Black Women

Objectives: This study sought to: 1) under­stand how the perceived food environment (availability, accessibility, and affordability) is associated with cardiometabolic health outcomes in predominately low-income Black residents in urban neighborhoods with limited healthy food access; and 2) examine the association of shopping at specific store types with cardiometabolic health outcomes.Methods: We report on cross-sectional data from 459 individuals participating in the Pittsburgh, PA Hill/Homewood Research on Neighborhoods and Health (PHRESH) study. Mean participant age was 60.7 (SD=13.9); 81.7% were female. We used logistic regression to examine associations between three factors (perceived fruit and vegetable availability, quality, and price; primary food shopping store characteristics; and frequency of shopping at stores with low or high access to healthy foods) and cardiometabolic and self-rated health.Results: Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, participants with higher perceived fruit and vegetable accessibility (AOR:.47, 95%CI: .28-.79, P=.004) and affordability (AOR:.59, 95%CI: .36-.96, P=.034) had lower odds of high blood pres­sure. Shopping often (vs rarely) at stores with low access to healthy foods was associated with higher odds of high total cholesterol (AOR:3.52, 95%CI: 1.09-11.40, P=.035). Finally, primary food shopping at a discount grocery (vs full-service supermarket) was as­sociated with lower odds of overweight/obe­sity (AOR:.51, 95%CI: .26-.99, P=.049).Conclusions: These results suggest that both perceived accessibility and affordability of healthy foods are associated with reduced cardiometabolic risk factors in this urban, low-income predominantly Black population. Additionally, discount grocery stores may be particularly valuable by providing access and affordability of healthy foods in this population. Ethn Dis. 2021;31(4):537-546; doi:10.18865/ed.31.4.537

Exploring Household Food Dynamics During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Morocco

Alongside the dramatic impact on health systems, eating, shopping, and other food-related habits may have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis. This paper analyses the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food shopping habits and food-related activities of a diverse sample of 340 adult consumers in Morocco. The study is based on an online survey conducted in Morocco from September 15 to November 5, 2020, utilizing a standardized questionnaire delivered in French and Arabic via Survey Monkey. The findings show that consumers' diet, shopping behavior, and food interactions have changed significantly. Indeed, the survey outcomes indicated (i) an increase in the consumption of local items owing to food safety concerns; (ii) an increase in online grocery shopping; (iii) a rise in panic buying and food hoarding; and (iv) an increase in culinary capabilities. The findings are expected to help guide Morocco's current emergency measures as well as long-term food-related policies.

Comparative analysis of online fresh food shopping behavior during normal and COVID-19 crisis periods

PurposeOnline fresh food shopping has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 crisis. Online fresh food shopping provides consumers with an alternative to shopping in a traditional market, while also enabling procurement of such goods at a reduced risk of infection. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether online fresh food shopping behaviors change during public health emergency periods.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected through a web-based survey (508 respondents in China). Descriptive analysis, ordinal logistic regression analysis, and the Apriori algorithm were employed to explore what characteristics influence purchase frequency as well as food and delivery time preferences among different customer groups.FindingsBased on the survey data, this study found that purchase frequency grew 71.2% during the COVID-19 crisis. City type and online shopping frequency of respondents are positively correlated with purchase frequency in normal and COVID-19 crisis periods. Number of daily hours worked by respondents only showed a significant impact for the normal period. People perceiving the risk of infection from going out are more willing to purchase fresh food online.Originality/valueThis is the first study to explore and compare online fresh food shopping behaviors during normal and COVID-19 crisis periods with a sample from China. The findings indicate a key role that online fresh food shopping can perform during a crisis and contribute to our understanding of fresh food online shopping behaviors during other possible public health emergency scenarios.