Storing Empty Calories and Chronic Disease Risk: Snack-Food Products, Nutritive Content, and Manufacturers in Philadelphia Corner Stores

Abstract

Corner stores are part of the urban food environment that may contribute to obesity and diet-related diseases, particularly for low-income and minority children. The snack foods available in corner stores may be a particularly important aspect of an urban child's food environment. Unfortunately, there is little data on exactly what snack foods corner stores stock, or where these foods come from. We evaluated snack foods in 17 Philadelphia corner stores, located in three ethnically distinct, low-income school neighborhoods. We recorded the manufacturer, calories, fat, sugar, and sodium for all snack items, excluding candy and prepared foods. We then compared the nutritive content of assessed snack items to established dietary recommendations and a school nutrition standard. In total, stores stocked 452 kinds of snacks, with only 15% of items common between all three neighborhoods. Total and unique snacks and snack food manufacturers varied by neighborhood, but distributions in snack type varied negligibly: overall, there were no fruit snacks, no vegetable snacks, and only 3.6% of all snacks (by liberal definition) were whole grain. The remainder (96.4% of snacks) was highly processed foods. Five of 65 manufacturers supplied 73.4% of all kinds of snack foods. Depending on serving size definition, 80.0-91.5% of snack foods were "unhealthy" (by the school nutrition standard), including seven of 11 wholegrain products. A single snack item could supply 6-14% of a day's recommended calories, fat, sugar, and sodium on average (or 56-169% at the extreme) for a "typical" child. We conclude that corner store snack food inventories are almost entirely unhealthful, and we discuss possible implications and next steps for research and intervention.

Availability of processed foods in the perimeter of public schools in urban areas

“…Um estudo que avaliou a oferta de opções de lanches em lojas de esquina localizadas ao redor de três escolas públi-cas da Filadélfia verificou que a maioria (mais de 95%) era composta por alimentos altamente processados e diferiam bastante entre as regiões investigadas. Os autores apontam como fatores importantes para essa diferença as preferências dos consumidores locais -que podem diferir de uma área para outra -e prioridades comerciais das indústrias alimentícias, as quais se localizam estrategicamente em certas regiões 21 . Resultado semelhante fora observado em Chicago, onde se evidenciou grande concentração de restaurantes do tipo fast food em áreas muito próximas às escolas, com 78% delas apresentando pelo menos um estabelecimento desse tipo a uma distância de 800 metros 22 .…”

Feeding a Family in a Recession: Food Insecurity among Minnesota Parents

“…41 Food at corner stores and convenience stores can be 150% to 400% higher in price than is food at a typical supermarket because these vendors often do not have the purchasing power or equipment to make nutrient-dense food more affordable or appealing. [42][43][44][45][46] Demonstration projects in-centivizing the purchase of fruits and vegetables by providing coupons among participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have been found to be successful. 47 Food-insecure parents in Project F-EAT would likely benefit from an expansion of fruit and vegetable incentive programs.…”

Snack Food, Satiety, and Weight

“…The healthfulness of snacks can be determined on the basis of their contents being consistent with established dietary recommendations and guidelines (6,7), which promote diets consisting of more fruit, vegetables, and whole grains and less total fat (especially solid fats), sodium, and refined sugars. Yet, despite a general interest in the idea of consuming more healthful foods and snacks among the population (8), ready-to-eat highly processed snacks are both increasingly available and consumed (6,9,10).…”