Assessment of the beverage environment at restaurants, corner stores and supermarkets using the newly developed NEMS-B tool

Background: The “food environment” – the availability, accessibility, cost and proximity of different types of food – can incentivize or encourage the purchase and consumption of foods and beverages. Until recently, systematically measuring the beverage environment in a wide variety of retail locations was not possible.  The Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey – Beverage tool, or NEMS-B, is a newly developed tool for this purpose

Methods: Assessments of the beverage and food environment at fast food restaurants and at the nearest convenience store and supermarket to each restaurant were conducted in urban areas of New York and New Jersey.  NEMS-B was used to measure locations on availability of healthy and unhealthy beverages, price, and promotion.  It allows for direct comparison of each of the locations at a given point in time and for assessment of changes over time.  

Results: We conducted assessments at 62 restaurants, 55 convenience stores and 40 supermarkets during January –April and again during September-November, 2013..  All sites were assessed multiple times throughout the year. Data is cleaned and ready for analysis. We will present detailed analysis of the availability, variety, price of bottled and fountain beverages at all three store types, including healthy and unhealthy beverages, as well as signage, promotion, deals.

Discussion: A detailed understanding of the beverage environment will be very useful information, both to look for possible policy changes and to better understand potential levers for policy or environmental change.