Towards effective healthier Digital Food Environments: Exploring the roles of consumers, practitioners and industry.

Digital food environments, including supermarket websites, are policy targets for change to support population health (1). Aspects of these food environments which may support healthier diets include the provision of front-of-pack nutrition labelling (i.e. traffic lights) (2), and nutrition-related product information management tools (i.e. "filters") (3). In addition, new UK Regulations now restrict promotions on less-healthy “high fat sugar salt” products (HFSS) online (4). This project will explore these features to ask the following questions; (i) To what extent can these features be expected to impact on consumers’ actual digital food choices? And (ii) What are the roles for the industry and health practitioners in supporting consumers? 

This PhD project will produce outputs to address the questions above, with anticipated impact via influence on UK nutrition policy, consumers, and nutrition professional organisations. 

Research into food environments which is intended to help people to find, choose and eat a healthier and more sustainable diet is more important than ever. The UK now faces unprecedented levels of obesity and a cost of living crisis. Many people are consuming excessive levels of salt, saturated fat and sugars (5).