Variations in fresh fruit and vegetable quality by store type, urban–rural setting and neighbourhood deprivation in Scotland

Abstract

Objective: Neighbourhood differences in access to fresh fruit and vegetables may explain social inequalities in diet. Investigations have focused on variations in cost and availability as barriers to the purchase and consumption of fresh produce; investigations of quality have been neglected. Here we investigate whether produce quality systematically varies by food store type, rural-urban location and neighbourhood deprivation in a selection of communities across Scotland. Design: Cross-sectional survey of twelve fresh fruit and vegetable items in 288 food stores in ten communities across Scotland. Communities were selected to reflect a range of urban-rural settings and a food retail census was conducted in each location. The quality of twelve fruit and vegetable items within each food store was evaluated. Data from the Scottish Executive were used to characterise each small area by deprivation and urban-rural classification. Setting: Scotland. Results: Quality of fruit and vegetables within the surveyed stores was high. Medium-sized stores, stores in small town and rural areas, and stores in more affluent areas tended to have the highest-quality fresh fruit and vegetables. Stores where food is secondary, stores in urban settings and stores in more deprived areas tended have the lowest-quality fresh produce. Although differences in quality were not always statistically significant, patterns were consistent for the majority of fruit and vegetable items. Conclusions: The study provides evidence that variations in food quality may plausibly be a micro-environmental mediating variable in food purchase and consumption and help partially explain neighbourhood differences in food consumption patterns.

Perceptions of the food shopping environment are associated with greater consumption of fruits and vegetables

“…Despite these limitations, our study extends the growing body of literature that highlights the importance of personal, subjective assessments of the food shopping environment (19,23,24,29) . Our analysis examines the role that perceptions of the quality, selection and convenience may play in promoting increased consumption of fruits and vegetables.…”

The role of the local retail food environment in fruit, vegetable and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in Brazil

“…A more detailed quality assessment on more items could improve the measure (9) . However, this would increase study cost and time and would not necessarily guarantee different results (11) .…”

“…Food availability (6) , accessibility of retail food stores (7,8) , overall grocery quality (9) and price (10) may influence whether individuals have predominantly healthy or unhealthy dietary patterns.…”

The food environment, its effects on dietary consumption, and potential for measurement within agriculture-nutrition interventions

“…For example, the quality of produce including its sensory aspects may not be appealing to consumers. Nutritious foods that degrade in quality can serve to deter consumers from buying these foods; lower quality produce is most often found in more disadvantaged areas of lower socio-economic status (Glanz et al 2007;Cummins et al 2009;Zenk et al 2005).…”

“…Desirability measurements evaluate food quality and are among the least studied feature of the food environment (Cummins et al 2009) yet are of great importance because overall quality of nutritious foods influences purchasing. Measures of desirability are often subjective on the basis of the perceiver as raters implementing the specific measure can disagree about the desirability of the food, such as the degree of bruising on fruits and vegetables, and willingness to purchase produce of a specific quality at a specific price.…”