Abstract
Online food delivery (OFD) platforms offer consumers a convenient and fast delivery service of foods and drinks sourced from foodservice partners (e.g. restaurants, quick service restaurants). There is a need to assess the impact of this emergent segment of the foodservice sector on diet and diet-related health. The aim of this narrative review was to describe the OFD sector in Australia, its use and identify potential ways to include OFD platforms in existing public health nutrition policy. A search was conducted in peer-reviewed and grey literature. Sources were analysed and synthesised to report the characteristics of OFD platforms, delivery process, users and potential drivers of usage. The aim and scope of public health nutrition policies were analysed to identify ways of including OFD platforms. Australia. General population. There are three main operators with 9000-16000 foodservice partners based predominantly in the main cities of Australia. OFD revenue has grown by 72 % in the last 5 years and is predicted to increase driven by usage by working adults with high disposable income who demand convenience. Current policies and initiatives aimed at manufacturers, retailers and foodservice outlets do not specifically regulate OFD platforms, although there is scope for these to be extended to such platforms. OFD platforms are disruptors of the foodservice sector. Innovative and consistent health policy options that target the unique challenges and opportunities posed by OFD platforms are required to limit the potentially negative impact of OFD platforms on diet and diet-related health.
Highlights
The online food delivery platforms in Australia We found that, as of February 2019, there were three leading Online food delivery (OFD) platforms operating in Australia; Deliveroo (Deliveroo®, RooFoods Ltd)(25), Uber eats (UberEATS®, Uber Technologies Inc.)(26) and Menulog
Users have the option to select ‘healthy’ as a food category, we found no information on how OFD platforms categorise foods and drinks as ‘healthy’ and it is unclear if this promotional tag is applied by the foodservice partner or the OFD platform concerned
Uber resisted being labelled as a taxi service, which enables them to operate outside of the regulation associated with this classification[65]. It is unclear if OFD platforms are categorised as manufacturer, retailer or foodservice outlet, and they fall outside the policies we identified as targeting these types of organisations
Summary
Search criteria We conducted a search of the academic literature using PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, BusinessAnalysis Data reporting OFD platforms were analysed and synthesised to report the characteristics of OFD platforms, the OFD process, key users and potential drivers of OFD usage. Current public health nutrition policies implemented in Online food delivery in Australia. The policy, its aim and scope and any current application to OFD platforms were analysed to identify relevance to OFD platforms to assess long-term impact. We categorised the recommendations listed in the four best practice guidelines (tackling NCD Best Buys[21], World Cancer Research Fund NOURISHING framework[22], The Healthy Food Environment Policy Index[23] and the Heavy Burden of Obesity report[24]) that were relevant to OFD platforms into six domains: labelling, public awareness/mass media, reformulation, availability/ portion size, fiscal and promotion/advertising (online Supplementary file, Table 1). We compared existing policies to these domains to determine which are addressed and where there are gaps in the current policy response that may impact on OFD platforms
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