As concern rises over the ready availablity of high-calorie, high-fat fast food, especially in deprived areas, a new online tool allows councils and campaigners to find out the concentration of outlets by area.
According to new figures made available by Cambridge University’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research (Cedar), there are now 56,638 takeaways in England – more than a quarter of all the country’s food outlets – with some of the heaviest concentrations of fast food found in England’s poorest and most deprived neighbourhoods.
Given the likely contribution of fast food outlets to obesity, the ubiquity of outlets is of concern to councils (which try to limit their spread by means of planning laws), campaigners, policy makers and academics. Cedar's new tool -- the Food Environmental Assessment Tool, or FEAT -- helps by allowing detailed exploration of the geography of food retail access across England.
Its developers suggest that it can be used to:
- generate local evidence for use in the development of Obesity Strategies, Local and Neighbourhood Plans and Strategic Planning Documents;
- support planning decisions;
- compare food access between neighbourhoods;
- target interventions;
- test the effectiveness of planning policies.
Explore the tool here.
The Sustain alliance campaigns for greener, fairer and healthier planning for food: find out more here.
Published Monday 31 July 2017
Sustain: Sustain The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity.
