Assessing the healthiness of menus of all out-of-home food outlets and its socioeconomic patterns in Great Britain.
Health & place 2023 ; 85: 103146.
Huang Y, Burgoine T, Bishop TRP, Adams J
DOI : 10.1016/j.healthplace.2023.103146
PubMed ID : 38056051
PMCID :
URL : https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1353829223001831
Abstract
Food environment research predominantly focuses on the spatial distribution of out-of-home food outlets. However, the healthiness of food choices available within these outlets has been understudied, largely due to resource constraints. In this study, we propose an innovative, low-resource approach to characterise the healthiness of out-of-home food outlets at scale. Menu healthiness scores were calculated for food outlets on JustEat, and a deep learning model was trained to predict these scores for all physical out-of-home outlets in Great Britain, based on outlet names. Our findings highlight the "double burden" of the unhealthy food environment in deprived areas where there tend to be more out-of-home food outlets, and these outlets tend to be less healthy. This methodological advancement provides a nuanced understanding of out-of-home food environments, with potential for automation and broad geographic application.
Lay Summary
This research addresses a gap in how we assess the out-of-home food environment. Studies typically focus on the location and availability of out-of-home food outlets, but not on the healthiness of their food. We developed a novel, low-resource method to evaluate the healthiness of these outlets on a large scale. We calculated "menu healthiness scores" for food outlets listed on JustEat, a leading food delivery service, and then trained a model to predict these scores for all out-of-home food outlets in Great Britain using outlet names. The findings show a concerning trend: in deprived areas, not only are there more out-of-home food outlets, but the food they offer tends to be less healthy. This new method helps researchers understand better the healthiness of out-of-home food outlets and could be applied to wider geographical areas.