Consumer Food Environment

Food Environments Team

Consumer Food Environment

Consumer Food Environment research stream relates to characteristics of what consumers face within retail and organisational food environments such as the products and meals available to purchase and their price, promotion and placement.

Our team’s research findings indicate a growing discontent among WA parents with the monotonous unhealthy options typically found on kids’ menus (e.g., nuggets and chips, burgers and chips, fish and chips). To address this issue, we are undertaking a program of research to enhance the nutritional value of kid’s menus across various dining establishments (i.e., cafes, restaurants, clubs, pubs, hotels).

Our team is also spearheading research into the consumer nutrition environment retail setting for highly caffeinated energy drinks. Cultural shifts in dietary preferences have seen the rise of these energy drinks (e.g., Red Bull, V, Prime Energy) among young consumers. This trend, however, has been linked to severe health issues including heart palpitations, insomnia, seizures, anxiety and cardiac arrest. To counteract this harmful trend and safeguard children’s health, our team has led a research project on the voluntary prohibition on the sale of energy drinks to children in Bridgetown, WA.

Contact the Food Environments Team at FET@ecu.edu.au

Current projects:

Past projects:

  • Consumer food environment in Perth recreation centre canteens
  • Differences in the nutritional quality of Kids” Meals by cuisine type (honours student Project: Natasha Reid 2022)
  • Kids’ meals in restaurants and cafes: how healthy are they? (East Metropolitan Health Service 2021)
  • Supermarket own-brand foods and implications for public health (PhD Student Project Claire Pulker 2016-19)
  • Statewide survey of energy drink use among adolescents in WA
  • Energy drinks: an emerging public health risk to young people (Qualitative research)

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