Abstract
ObjectiveTo describe the food environment in rural villages and an urban slum setting in India with reference to commercially available unbranded packaged snacks and street foods sold by vendors, and to analyze the type and quantity of fat in these foods. DesignCross-sectional. SettingTwo low-income villages in Haryana and an urban slum in Delhi. ParticipantsStreet vendors (n = 44) were surveyed and the nutritional content of snacks (n = 49) sold by vendors was analyzed. Main Outcome MeasuresVendors' awareness and perception of fats and oils, as well as the type of snacks sold, along with the content and quality of fat present in the snacks. AnalysisDescriptive statistics of vendor survey and gas chromatography to measure fatty acid content in snacks. ResultsA variety of snacks were sold, including those in unlabeled transparent packages and open glass jars. Mean fat content in snacks was 28.8 g per 100-g serving in rural settings and 29.6 g per 100-g serving in urban settings. Sampled oils contained high levels of saturated fats (25% to 69% total fatty acids) and trans fats (0.1% to 30% of total fatty acids). Conclusions and ImplicationsInterventions need to target the manufacturers of oils and fats used in freshly prepared products to improve the quality of foods available in the food environment of low-socioeconomic groups in India.
Highlights
What people eat depends on individual and cultural factors and on their surrounding food environment.[1]
The 2 rural adjacent villages that were examined had a bus stop between them where the vendors of both villages procured the snacks for their shops; 7 village vendors (26%) prepared at least some of the items themselves
Six of the vendors (35%) in the urban slum prepared some of their own snacks; the remaining snacks were procured from third-party wholesalers who came to the slum to sell directly to the vendors, and from wholesale distributors and grocery shops
Summary
What people eat depends on individual and cultural factors and on their surrounding food environment.[1] The food environment is one of the major domains in which policies can intervene to improve the availability, affordability, and acceptability of healthier food.[2] By improving. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 48, Number 4, 2016 nutrition labeling, offering healthier foods, setting standards in public institutions, using economic tools to address food affordability, restricting food advertising, improving the quality of the food supply, and setting incentives and rules to create a healthy retail environment, the food environment can better support consumers to make healthier food choices.[2]. In the US, studies have shown that lowersocioeconomic communities tend to be characterized by the high availability of convenience and energy-dense foods of little nutritional value and the low availability of fresh produce and other nutritious foods.[3,4] Barriers to access can make it difficult for people to choose healthy food.[5,6,7] How-
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