Adoption and motivational factors for online grocery shopping in the UK

Following upon the results of previous qualitative research (Authors, 2005), the objective of this paper is to confirm the role of situational variables in the adoption process of online grocery shopping. Situational variables and life events in particular (e.g. having a baby, health problems) emerge as the trigger for starting online grocery shopping for two clusters. However, the adoption of e-grocery shopping seems to be re-evaluated frequently and consequently post-adoption evaluation appears crucial to the decision of whether to continue with or to drop internet grocery shopping

Online and store patronage : a typology of grocery shoppers

Purpose Grounded on approach/avoidance behaviour theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of grocery shoppers based on the concomitant perceived advantages and disadvantages of shopping online and in store for a single cohort of consumers who buy groceries in both channels. Design/methodology/approach A survey design was employed using a sample of 871 UK shoppers who had purchased groceries online and offline. The survey instrument contained items that measured the perceived advantages and disadvantages of grocery shopping online, and items relating to the perceived advantages and disadvantages of grocery shopping in traditional supermarkets. Items were selected from the extant literature and subjected to content and face validity checks. Cluster analysis was used to develop typologies of online and offline grocery shoppers. The inter-relation between the two typology sets was then examined. Findings The results of the research provide several insights into the characteristics, perceptions and channel patronage preferences of grocery shoppers. In particular, profiling e-grocery shoppers on the basis of their concomitant perceptions of shopping online and in store suggests that the choice of whether to shop online or in store may be driven not by the perceived advantages of one channel vs the other, but by the desire to avoid the greater disadvantages of the alternative. These perceptions differ somewhat between different consumer groups. Originality/value This study makes a noteworthy contribution to the internet and general shopping literature by providing a profile of grocery shoppers based on their concomitant and often conflicting perceived advantages and disadvantages of shopping online and their perceived advantages and disadvantages of shopping in traditional supermarkets. The use of a single cohort of consumers overcomes the bias in previous studies that employ separate cohorts of online and offline shoppers and reveal important insights into the complex perceptions and behaviours of multichannel grocery shoppers. </jats:sec

Projected health effects of realistic dietary changes to address freshwater constraints in India : a modelling study

Acknowledgements This study forms part of the Sustainable and Healthy Diets in India project supported by the Wellcome Trust's Our Planet, Our Health programme (grant number 103932). LA's PhD is funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Integrative Research on Agriculture and Health. SA is supported by a Wellcome Trust Capacity Strengthening Strategic Award-Extension phase (grant number WT084754/Z/08/A). We would like to thank Zaid Chalabi (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) for providing valuable guidance on the modelling methods.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The future of environmental sustainability labelling on food products.

If each of us were to consider the food we had for lunch, we can probably estimate whether it was relatively healthy (e.g., did we go hungry, did it add to the variety of our diet, or consumption of five fruits and vegetables a day?). How easy is to make a similar judgement on whether our lunch contributed to a sustainable diet? For example, the carbon emissions associated with a simple sandwich can more than double, depending on the filling, where it is made, the packaging used and many more factors.1 Drawing on the past experiences of nutrition labelling on food products, we consider whether sustainability labelling can provide a practical route to encourage sustainable food choices, sustainable market changes, and a move towards sustainable and healthy food systems. Sustainability labelling on food products is most commonly associated with social and ecological certification schemes (e.g., USDA Organic Seal; Fairtrade mark; Friend of the Sea).2 More recently, an increasing number of labels have emerged which estimate the impact of a product on one or more environmental factor e.g., carbon foot-printing as a marker of greenhouse gas emissions or climate change.3 Research suggests there is a demand for these different types of sustainability labels; yet, it is uncertain if these labels will affect our everyday selections and purchases of food.4 Price, taste, brand, appearance, product familiarity and habits are still dominant reasons for our food choices; however, over 20 years’ of research indicates nutrition labelling can drive healthy food choices and incentivise product reformulation.5 In 2019, a meta-analysis investigated the impact of nutrition labels on food products and menus (including a variety of nutrient content labels, claims, logos, or indices, such as warning labels and traffic light labels). They concluded a small impact of labels, which can reduce total energy and total fat consumption, increase vegetable intake, and positively impact industry reformulation for sodium and trans fat content.5 Further research is on-going regarding whether these impacts follow a social gradient and compound diet-related health inequalities (e.g., reformulated ‘healthier’ products are added to a range at a higher price point/available only in higher income countries; or numeracy skills are required to interpret health indicating labels).6 Food labelling has become part of the food system infrastructure, yet there are challenges with governing this sector. Voluntary recommendations and mandatory regulations are used to facilitate inter-/national trade (e.g., country of origin requirements by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius food labelling standards), and signify quality assurance, safety and traceability standards (e.g., declaration of trans fatty acids content). Ensuring compliance with regulation requires considerable resources from those responsible for governing the food system. For example, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been harmonising and adapting food labelling regulation since 2006 to keep pace with a proliferation of food labels in the market. EFSA now require a portfolio of evidence from each manufacturer to authorise the use of a health or nutrient claim on their food product. This is to protect fair competition within the food industry and also to monitor the validity of claims to protect the public from being misled. Producing and reviewing these portfolios has taken considerable resources for both EFSA and the food industry. It is worthwhile to consider whether existing regulation and regulatory resources are sufficient to monitor sustainability claims if they were to become more widespread. Trust and transparency in any labelling scheme is essential for it to be meaningful and motivate change in individuals or industries. We have seen confusion surrounding the use of the term ‘organic’ on food products. These products can be ascribed a ‘health halo’, yet there are limitations in the evidence indicating a superior nutrition quality of organic products and health benefits may be more associated with the social values attributed to organic production. The use of certification schemes can encourage transparent standards; however, this is less clear with schemes (e.g., Fair Trade) which have been brought in-house: where products are self-certified rather than part of an ‘independent’ certification scheme. It is difficult to discern the sustainability of a product at point of purchase and maintaining the trust and transparency of different sustainability indices or metrics, across inconsistent product categories, will be paramount to ensuring accountability for food fraud or the use of exploitative marketing techniques.7 A major challenge with sustainability labelling of food products is the complexity of the sustainability concept itself, as well as the food system within which it operates. Sustainability is multi-faceted and sustainable food systems represent not only environmental factors (ecology), they are also sensitive to the health of the population today and in the future (nutrition, food security), and society as a whole (ethics and social welfare). Food systems themselves are also dynamic and complex: involving a multitude of changeable and inter-related activities, actors, and infrastructure from the production to the consumption, recycling and/or disposal of food. At every point there can be multiple environmental impacts, related to biodiversity, green house gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane etc.), land, water or other resource use (e.g., nitrogen or phosphorous management). All these factors complicate the ability to create a metric or index that can trace a product as it journeys through the food system in order to assess its environmental, health or social impacts. Creating food systems that provide healthy food to everyone today and in future generations without exploiting human or planetary resources is one of the greatest challenges of this century. The development and use of sustainability labelling has the potential to play a role in moving towards sustainable and healthy food systems and a sustainable future, as outlined in the aims of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The reach of food labelling is considerable and could increase public awareness of how food is produced and consumed. Nutrient labelling remains a popular public health intervention, with mandatory nutrition labelling in at least 50 countries worldwide, with highly processed and packaged foods making an ever greater contribution to the global diet (e.g., in a sample of sixteen countries approximately 85 % of packaged food carried a nutrient label, health/nutrition claim, or a health/nutrition marketing claim).8 9 Past experiences of nutrition labelling provide a number of cautions to the rise in sustainability labelling. First, sustainability labelling is unlikely to be a panacea for behaviour change in consumers. Instead it can target small incremental changes at different levels and actors in the food system, within both individuals and organisations. Second, there is the potential for confusion with sustainability concepts, which can be exploited for commercial or political use, particularly where competing interests are present. The media and public attention on climate change and rise in sustainability labelling of food products provides an opportunity to develop food system analytics and sustainability metrics. Using these metrics, actors within the food system will be better equipped to communicate the nuances and evaluate the risks and trade-offs of system-wide interventions, and ultimately contribute to the evolution of sustainable and healthy food systems. The authors declare no competing interests. KAB, FH, CK contributed substantially to the conception and drafting of this work; KAB, FH, FH, CK, CP revised the work critically for important intellectual content; all authors approved the final version to be published and agree to be accountable for the work. All authors receive funding from the Wellcome Trust’s Our Planet, Our Health programme: KAB, FH, CK via the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) programme [grant number 205200/Z/16/Z], and CP via the Livestock, Environment and People (LEAP) project [grant number 205212/Z/16/Z]. This commentary does not necessarily reflect the views of the Wellcome Trust or its future policy in this area

Environmental assessment and health impact assessment

HIA and EA are approaches and processes that support better, healthier, and more sustainable policy development and decisionmaking. When undertaken well, and when valued and applied, they can also help to support better, more informed, transparent and democratic policy development and decision- making processes. However, they are not a panacea; rather, they constitute one important piece of the policy development and decision- making puzzle. Public health practitioners need to increase their knowledge and understanding of EA and HIA. They should improve their links with EA and HIA specialists. They also need to proactively and consistently undertake and commission assessments of health either within EA or as stand alone HIAs. Public health practitioners would also do well to oversee and scrutinize the scope of work for, and the findings of, EAs and HIAs that are commissioned and undertaken by others in the localities in which they work. By doing so, public health practitioners can help to advance the agenda of improving health for all by acting on the upstream determinants of health and bringing together key actors across society

The water use of Indian diets and socio-demographic factors related to dietary blue water footprint.

Agriculture accounts for ~90% of India's fresh water use, and there are concerns that future food production will be threatened by insufficient water supply of adequate quality. This study aimed to quantify the water required in the production of diets in India using the water footprint (WF) assessment method. The socio-demographic associations of dietary WFs were explored using mixed effects regression models with a particular focus on blue (irrigation) WF given the importance for Indian agriculture. Dietary data from ~7000 adults living in India were matched to India-specific WF data for food groups to quantify the blue and green (rainfall) WF of typical diets. The mean blue and green WF of diets was 737l/capita/day and 2531l/capita/day, respectively. Vegetables had the lowest WFs per unit mass of product, while roots/tubers had the lowest WFs per unit dietary energy. Poultry products had the greatest blue WFs. Wheat and rice contributed 31% and 19% of the dietary blue WF respectively. Vegetable oils were the highest contributor to dietary green WF. Regional variation in dietary choices meant large differences in dietary blue WFs, whereby northern diets had nearly 1.5 times greater blue WFs than southern diets. Urban diets had a higher blue WF than rural diets, and a higher standard of living was associated with larger dietary blue WFs. This study provides a novel perspective on the WF of diets in India using individual-level dietary data, and demonstrates important variability in WFs due to different food consumption patterns and socio-demographic characteristics. Future dietary shifts towards patterns currently consumed by individuals in higher income groups, would likely increase irrigation requirements putting substantial pressure on India's water resources

Assessing health impacts within environmental impact assessments: An opportunity for public health globally which must not remain missed

Within the member states of the United Nations 190 of 193 have regulated Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) which is a systematic process to prevent and mitigate the potential environmental impacts of industry development projects before these occur. However, the routine and comprehensive assessment of health impacts within EIAs remains underdeveloped. Focusing, as an example, on the risks to global health from the global shift in the mining industry towards Low and Middle Income Countries LMIC), this viewpoint details why connecting with EIA is an essential task for the health system. Although existing knowledge is out of date in relation to global practice we identify how health has been included, to some extent, in High Income Country EIAs and the institutional requirements for doing so. Using arguments identified by industry themselves about requiring a ‘social license to operate’, we conclude that EIA regulations provide the best current mechanism to ensure health protection is a core aspect in the decision making process to approve projects

Dietary recommendations in Spain -affordability and environmental sustainability?

Global food demand is increasing due to population growth and dietary transitions, resulting from rising incomes, are associated with increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Improving the sustainability of the food sector is also critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. This study assesses for the first time the greenhouse gases emissions (Carbon Footprint - CF), the water footprint (WF) and the cost of three omnivorous diets recommended in Spain due to their health benefits: the Mediterranean diet (MD), the Southern European Atlantic diet (SEAD) and the Spanish dietary guidelines (NAOS). Analysis was conducted using standard Life Cycle Assessment and WF methods together with current Spanish food price data. The dietary energy recommendation of the SEAD is greater than that of MD and NAOS (11 and 15% respectively), and SEAD also has greater animal source food content than the other two diets. SEAD has a concomitantly higher CF, WF and cost scores in comparison with MD (+30%, +23% and +21% respectively) and NAOS (+15%, +9% and +21% respectively). Adjusting recommendations to meet the suggested Spanish adult dietary energy of 2228 kcal.capita-1.day-1 changed the environmental profiles of the diets and the NAOS has the highest environmental impact. However, the isocaloric diets had approximately the same cost. Analysis of the WF of the diets identified the major contribution of precipitation (the green WF) to the overall WF (88% of the total) and the significant contribution of animal-source foods to dietary WF. Regardless of the dietary scenario, better scores were identified for the Spanish recommendations analysed than those reported for other healthy diets identified in Europe. Differences in the recommended intake levels of certain food groups, cooking techniques and the origin of food products are behind these results. Environmental indicators should be considered alongside nutrition and health metrics when defining national dietary guidelines. Supporting citizens to follow healthy and environmentally-friendly dietary recommendations through, among other things, information campaigns and nutritional education programmes is essential. It is recommended the incorporation not only of health, but also of environmental indicators of these dietary options in the national dietary guidelines, as well as implementation of information campaigns and nutritional education programs among citizens to promote their adhesion since balanced dietary habits rich on plant-based products and low on animal-based ones involve multiple health and environmental benefits