Household Food Security in Scotland: Access and Affordability

1. Household Food Security in Scotland: Access and Affordability Professor David Marshall Think Tank on Food Security: The Role for the Scottish Government in Ensuring Continuity of Food Supply To and Within Scotland and Access to Affordable Food. 3rd and 4th March, 2009, Royal Terrace Hotel, Edinburgh.

2. Scottish Food Policy • VISION • ‘Communities across Scotland will enjoy better access to affordable, safe, healthy and fresh seasonal produce’ p9 Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

3. Accessing Healthy Food http://www.food.gov.uk/multimedia/pdfs/accessfoodscotexec.pdf John Dawson*, ***, David Marshall*, Matt Taylor*, Steven Cummins**, Leigh Sparks***, Annie Anderson**** *University of Edinburgh; **Queen Mary, University of London; ***University of Stirling; ****University of Dundee. • Objective: • To provide an objective and systematic evaluation of access in terms of availability and affordability of a selected range of healthy foods Funding: Food Standards Agency (Scotland) SO4005 Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

4. Scottish food retail map • A database of 5923 food shops was compiled from a range of sources and mapped • Approximately 250,000 people live more than 10km from a large/medium sized food store • Approximately 3 million people live less than 1km from a large/medium sized food store Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

5. Research Sentinels Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

6. Findings - Availability • Large stores and some medium sized stores have the full range of HEISB items • Small stores generally stock about half the items • Fruit and carbohydrate group items normally more available than vegetable group • Protein group items less available in more deprived areas • Total number of items per shop weakly negatively correlated with deprivation but more deprived areas have higher density of small shops • A good range (>50% in each of 5 product groups) in 61 of 268 small general food stores. These usually are in rural areas. Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

7. Findings - Price • There was a considerable range of price for HEISB items and the baskets across stores and sentinels. • Average price for HEISB basket in large stores was £37.48, in medium stores £40.30 and in small stores £47.83 • Average price in urban sentinels is lower than in rural sentinels • In general prices rise with deprivation BUT prices are lowest in the most deprived areas • Affluent sentinels are associated with lower prices in all but 2 HEISB items • The 3 sentinels with significant deprived element have the three highest prices Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

8. Research Conclusions • The research indicated that there are no major issues of availability of healthy food items although inevitably there will be specific issues for some individual consumers in specific situations • Large stores had high levels of availability and low prices for healthy food items • The more deprived urban areas have a higher density of small stores that, individually, have lower levels of availability of HEISB • Food prices are very dynamic with promotional activity being widespread nonetheless the research suggested that real and substantial differences in price exist for HEISB food items across store types and by area. • Prices, generally but not necessarily on all items, in rural areas were higher than in urban areas • Prices generally were lower in the most deprived and the most affluent areas Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

9. Selected publications • Cummins, S. Smith, D. M., Taylor, M. Dawson, J. Marshall, D., Sparks, L. and Anderson, A. "Variations in fresh fruit and vegetable quality by store type, urban-rural setting and neighbourhood deprivation in Scotland". Public Health Nutrition, 2009 (forthcoming) • Cummins, S. Smith, D. M., Taylor, M. Dawson, J. Marshall, D., Sparks, L. and Anderson, A. Neighbourhood food environment and area deprivation: spatial accessibility to grocery stores selling fresh fruit and vegetables in urban and rural settings, International Journal of Epidemiology, 2009, (forthcoming). • Dawson, J., Marshall, D, Cummins, S., Sparks, L. and Anderson, A. Accessing Healthy Food: Availability and price of a healthy basket in Scotland. Journal of Marketing Management, 24, 9/10: 2008, 893-913. • Anderson AS, Dewar J, Marshall D, Cummins S, Taylor M, Dawson J, Sparks. The development of a healthy eating indicator shopping basket tool (HEISB) for use in food access studies—identification of key food items. Journal of Public Health Nutrition, 2007 10(12):1440-7. Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009

10. ‘Food is gone as soon as it is eaten – it has to be renewed all the time. For each individual or household food is a demand that has to be satisfied on a daily rhythm. For the individual, the household or group, it thus implies a special strategy, continually renewed, and a complex collective practices in order to obtain the necessary (or desired) foodstuffs, to preserve them, to render them suitable for eating by cooking, to serve them at table (or elsewhere) and , finally, to ingest them. This daily strategy has diversified enormously over time and space’….Bergier 1998, p2. Thank You Scottish Government Think Tank on Food Security - Edinburgh, 3rd-4th March, 2009