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Food Environment and Food Retailing: Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Food Policy

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Food".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2021) | Viewed by 12707

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Global Health, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
Interests: food environments and nutrition; nutrition transitions; mortality and cause of death analysis; Asia-Pacific health; epidemiology; health information systems

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last 50 years, food systems globally have undergone profound transitions. Urbanization, industrialization, and technological change have affected food production, processing, distribution, retailing, and consumption. In most countries around the world, food environments are increasingly being dominated by large multi-national food retailers, which are replacing traditional fresh markets and stores. This transition has great implications up and down the food chain, from agriculturalists and food producers who supply the food retail system, to consumers whose food choices are impacted by these new food environments. The effects of food retail change can therefore have an impact on environmental health related to farming practices, as well as human health in terms of changes in food availability and affordability.

In this Special Issue we aim to produce a collective picture of the impact of food environments and particularly food retail systems at all of these levels, environmental health, agricultural and food producer livelihoods, and consumer and nutrition outcomes. We want to gain a broad understanding of the phenomenon of food system change from multiple perspectives.

We invite applications that address the impact of food environments in all of these areas. We particularly encourage contributions and analyses from low- and middle-income settings where food retail and food environment change is most recent and still ongoing.

Dr. Matthew Kelly
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • food retail
  • food environments
  • nutrition
  • supermarkets
  • fresh markets
  • retail transition
  • nutrition transition

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 887 KiB  
Article
Nutritional Values of Foods on a Population of the Czech Republic
by Kamila Vesela, Lucie Severova and David Krizek
Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7529; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147529 - 06 Jul 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2307
Abstract
The aim of this text is to present the results of the research we carried out on a group of inhabitants of the Czech Republic who actively (or at least occasionally) engage in sports activities. The aim of the research was to analyse [...] Read more.
The aim of this text is to present the results of the research we carried out on a group of inhabitants of the Czech Republic who actively (or at least occasionally) engage in sports activities. The aim of the research was to analyse the consumer behavior of athletes in the Czech Republic with an emphasis on their use of health food stores and their habits in monitoring the nutritional values of food, in the content of sugar and carbohydrates in the food they consume. Excess sugar consumption; obesity; and, conversely, the issue of a healthy lifestyle and the growing interest in healthy “alternative” lifestyles, have often been a subject of debate. The research has shown, among other things, that 58% of respondents consume sugar; 70% of men and 88% of women shop at health food stores at least occasionally; and the most monitored values are calories, carbohydrates, and sugar. Full article
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24 pages, 2680 KiB  
Article
Research on Environmental Issue and Sustainable Consumption of Online Takeout Food—Practice and Enlightenment Based on China’s Meituan
by Meiwen Guo, Liang Wu, Jianping Peng and Chun-Hung Chiu
Sustainability 2021, 13(12), 6722; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126722 - 14 Jun 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 7118
Abstract
In today’s society, consumers’ food needs can be satisfied by catering e-commerce platforms. However, the plastic pollution of tableware and packaging caused by a large number of catering orders every day has always been an unsolved environmental problem. (1) Background: At present, China’s [...] Read more.
In today’s society, consumers’ food needs can be satisfied by catering e-commerce platforms. However, the plastic pollution of tableware and packaging caused by a large number of catering orders every day has always been an unsolved environmental problem. (1) Background: At present, China’s three largest catering platforms, Meituan, Eleme and Baidu, receive 20 million takeout orders daily and consume about 60 million plastic products. Plastic pollution will have a sustained impact on the environment. (2) Methods: In this study, we use literature research and case analysis. We use Meituan’s takeout food as an example. We studied the takeout business growth, status of online takeout in the treatment of plastic packaging, harm to environment, humans and animals, as well as specific solutions. (3) Results: There are four main reasons which contribute to the plastic packaging pollution (i.e., high recycling cost, difficulty to deal with mixed plastic packaging, low effectiveness of collecting plastic packing, and immature technology and treatment to incinerate and landfill catering plastic waste). (4) Conclusion: Our findings suggest that regulators, takeout platforms and consumers, which have corresponding responsibilities in the environmental protection consumption of online food, are supposed to work together to get rid of the online takeout pollution for achieving sustainable consumption. Not only is government legislation needed to improve the waste management system and encourage the exploration of new intelligent waste classification tools, but platforms, businesses and users should enhance the environmental awareness of online takeout packaging pollution as well. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed. Full article
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20 pages, 1632 KiB  
Article
Food Safety and Quality in Connection with the Change of Consumer Choice in Czechia (a Case Study)
by Lucie Severová, Roman Svoboda, Karel Šrédl, Marie Prášilová, Alexandr Soukup, Lenka Kopecká and Marek Dvořák
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6505; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116505 - 07 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2645
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to express changes in consumer preferences for certain food products due to the income growth of the population, and to specify the way producers or retailers of these commodities respond to the changes in customer choices. The [...] Read more.
The purpose of this study is to express changes in consumer preferences for certain food products due to the income growth of the population, and to specify the way producers or retailers of these commodities respond to the changes in customer choices. The methodology of this study is based on comparing the economic model of consumer behavior in the market to the analysis of demand elasticity, together with its practical application to food products of the same brand offered by multinational chains in Czechia and Germany. The study presents a new survey, including a comparison of the quality and safety of food products offered by retail chains in Czechia and Germany, and a comparison with similar bio-quality products offered by Czech farmers in their shops or at farmers’ markets. As the comparison indicates, unless multinational producers change their current behavior, consumers will prefer purchasing products from Czech producers, including products offered at farmers’ markets, and shop in neighboring countries where higher-quality original products may be found. Full article
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