Food and Beverage Environment in Neighborhood Stores: Baseline Findings from the Healthy Eating Active Communities Program (HEAC)

Individuals make food and beverage choices within environments. In the midst of a childhood obesity epidemic, it is important to assess whether or not the neighborhood food and beverage retail environments support or impede healthy nutritional choices.

To assess the healthfulness of the food and beverage environment in six HEAC Program sites, the types of foods and beverages sold in seven neighborhood stores were compared to California's school nutrition standards, SB12 and SB965. Convenience/liquor stores, supermarket/grocery stores, and “big box” stores were assessed. Within these stores, categories of foods and beverages (e.g., “candy” or “soda”) were recorded, as well as the variety of foods and beverages present. In addition, when assessing the cash register areas, the largest sizes of items were recorded. The foods and beverages found were then compared to SB12 and SB965 to assess adherence to nutritional policies relevant to children.

The stores were found to have more non-adhering food and beverage categories present than adherent categories. There were also more non-adherent categories with a high variety of items present than adherent categories, for both foods and beverages. The largest size items found at the cash register ranged from 1 to 26 serving sizes.

In order to curb childhood obesity, considerable work has been done to improve the school nutritional environments. However, if the neighborhood environment does not support healthy choices, the progress schools have made will be undermined. This study quantifies the quality of the neighborhood food and beverage environment and demonstrates the need for improvement.