FOOD SWAMPS AND THE AVAILABILITY OF ULTRA-PROCESSED PRODUCTS IN THE RETAIL FOOD ENVIRONMENT IN A LOW-INCOME BRAZILIAN CITY

• Autor(a) principal: Almeida, Nykholle Bezerra
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Outros Autores: Costa, Gabriel Marx Assunção, Vidal, Nicole Almeida Conde, Aragão, Luan Santos de, Menezes, Risia Cristina Egito de, Longo-Silva, Giovana, Silveira, Jonas Augusto Cardoso da
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Hygeia (Uberlândia)
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/hygeia/article/view/70485
• topic: Ambiente alimentar; Alimentos ultraprocessados; Pântanos alimentares; Georreferenciamento; Food environment; Ultra-processed foods; Food swamps; Georeferencing

This study aimed to evaluate the formation of food swamps and the availability of ultra-processed foods (UPF) in a low-income Brazilian municipality. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Rio Largo/AL between 09/2017 and 10/2018. Food retail outlets (FROs) were identified through audits on all streets of the municipality and classified as healthy (H), mixed (M), and unhealthy (UH). The Nutrition Environment Measurement Survey for Stores (NEMS-S) instrument, adapted and validated for Brazil, was utilized. Thematic maps were constructed to show the distribution, density (kernel), and clustering (nearest neighbor analysis) of the different FROs. Out of 574 businesses evaluated, 63% were classified as UH-FROs. Despite the high degree of dispersion, UH-FROs showed higher spatial clustering. Despite the constant presence of UH-FROs, the UPF availability was greater in M-FROs, where 45.6% had between 75-100% of NEMS-S items. Therefore, the retail food environment analysis demonstrated that the city offered little support for healthy food choices, given the predominance of areas characterized as food swamps. Additionally, we identified a high availability of UPF in FROs, especially in M-FROs.