Abstract
The demand for convenience and the increasing role of digital technology in everyday life has fueled the use of online food delivery services (OFD’s), of which young people are the largest users globally. OFD’s are disrupting traditional food environments, yet research evaluating the public health implications of such services is lacking. We evaluated the characteristics and nutritional quality of popular food outlets on a market-leading platform (UberEATS®) in a cross-sectional observational study conducted in two international cities: Sydney (Australia) and Auckland (New Zealand). A systematic search using publicly available population-level data was used to identify geographical areas with above-average concentrations (>30%) of young people (15–34-years). A standardized data extraction protocol was used to identify the ten most popular food outlets within each area. The nutritional quality of food outlets was assessed using the Food Environment Score (FES) (range: −10 ‘unhealthiest’ to 10 ‘healthiest’). Additionally, the most popular menu items from each food outlet were classified as discretionary or core foods/beverages according to the Australian Dietary Guidelines. The majority of popular food outlets were classified as ‘unhealthy’ (FES range −10 to −5; 73.5%, 789/1074) and were predominately takeaway franchise stores (59.6%, 470/789, e.g., McDonald’s®). 85.9% of all popular menu items were discretionary (n = 4958/5769). This study highlights the pervasion and accessibility of discretionary foods on OFD’s. This study demonstrated that the most popular food outlets on the market-leading online food delivery service are unhealthy and popular menu items are mostly discretionary foods; facilitating the purchase of foods of poor nutritional quality. Consideration of OFD’s in public health nutrition strategies and policies in critical.
Highlights
Obesity is among the biggest health challenges facing the world [1], in particular for adolescents and young adults [2]
We found that almost three-quarters of the most popular food outlets were classified as unhealthy using the Food Environment Score (FES), with half of the food outlets in Auckland and a third of food outlets in Sydney being classified as takeaway food franchise stores such as McDonald’s®
This study demonstrated that the most popular food outlets on the market-leading online food delivery service are unhealthy and popular menu items are mostly discretionary foods (i.e., ‘junk foods’)
Summary
Obesity is among the biggest health challenges facing the world [1], in particular for adolescents and young adults [2]. The major risk factors driving the global burden of obesity are diet-related [3]. Dietary risk factors for obesity and chronic diseases include diets high in discretionary foods (i.e., energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods high in saturated fat, added sugars and sodium) [4]. Food retail environments influence dietary behaviors and obesity prevalence [5]. Evidence for the causal relationship between food environments and obesity is limited [6,7]. Recent research has demonstrated associations between restaurant and takeaway food consumption with increased discretionary food intake [8]
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