Environnement alimentaire de consommation : développement d’un instrument de mesure et évaluation dans quatre quartiers de Montréal
Background: The food environment can be described as a set of conditions in which food is purchased and eaten. This environment has the potential to influence individual dietary behaviours. The consumer food environment in Québec is not well documented, which impedes our ability to develop programs and policies to promote healthy diets.  Objectives: The main objective of this study was to design and validate a tool for evaluating the consumer food environment, with specific application to the Quebec context. The secondary objective was to characterize the consumer food environment in the supermarkets of four neighbourhoods of Montréal.   Methods: The MEAC-S was developed, tested for reliability and used to assess the food environment inside 17 supermarkets. Shelf length, variety, price, display counts and in-store positions of fruits and vegetables (FV) and chips, sodas and frozen entrees were measured. Quality was assessed for fresh FV. Store size was estimated using the total measured shelf length for all food categories. Intra-class correlation coefficients were calculated to test the MEAC-S for reliability and Spearman correlations were conducted between indicators of the food environment.  Results: Reliability analyses revealed satisfactory results for most indicators. Regarding the consumer food environment, the results highlight the variability in the shelf length, variety and price of FV between supermarkets and suggest a disproportionate promotion of ultra-processed food products. Price of ultra-processed food products is inversely associated with their prominence (p<0,005) and promotion (p<0,003). Store size is associated with display counts and strategic in-store positioning of ultra-processed food products (p<0,001), but not with FV.   Conclusion: This study suggests the in-store content greatly varies from one supermarket to another and stresses the necessity of using a comprehensive set of measures to assess the consumer food environment.
Marketing Diet Food supply Food environment Fruits and vegetables Food processing Food purchase behaviour Obesity