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Supermarket Interventions and Diet in areas of Limited Retail Access: Policy Suggestions from the Seacroft Intervention Study

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  • Rudkin, Simon

Abstract

Globally supermarkets have been seen as a remedy to the problems of poor diets in deprived neighbourhoods where access to healthy foodstuffs has been limited. This study seeks to quantify the consequences of one such United Kingdom intervention, in Seacroft, Leeds. Where previous work often focused on fruit and vegetables, this paper presents evidence on all food and drink consumed before, and after, the new opening. It is shown that utilising large format retailers can also bring significant negative consequences for already unhealthy diets, exactly the opposite of what policy makers set out to achieve. Suggestion is therefore made that policymakers consider using price, or education, interventions rather than promoting large shops, which, while stocking cheap healthy food also offer shoppers the unhealthy produce they like at low prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Rudkin, Simon, 2015. "Supermarket Interventions and Diet in areas of Limited Retail Access: Policy Suggestions from the Seacroft Intervention Study," MPRA Paper 62434, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:62434
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/62434/1/MPRA_paper_62434.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Taiyang Zhong & Zhenzhong Si & Jonathan Crush & Steffanie Scott & Xianjin Huang, 2019. "Achieving urban food security through a hybrid public-private food provisioning system: the case of Nanjing, China," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(5), pages 1071-1086, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food desert intervention; diet; healthy eating; supermarkets;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

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