England's food policy coordination and the Covid-19 response

Promoting health in the digital environment: health policy experts' responses to on-demand delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

Services offering on-demand delivery of unhealthy commodities, such as fast food, alcohol and smoking/vaping products have proliferated in recent years. It is well known that the built environment can be health promoting or harmful to health, but there has been less consideration of the digital environment. Increased availability and accessibility of these commodities may be associated with increased consumption, with harmful public health implications. Policy regulating the supply of these commodities was developed before the introduction of on-demand services and has not kept pace with the digital environment. This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with health policy experts on the health harms of the uptake in on-demand delivery of food, alcohol and smoking/vaping products, along with their views on policies that might mitigate these harms. We interviewed 14 policy experts from central and local government agencies and ministries, health authorities, non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and university research positions in Aotearoa New Zealand using a purposive sampling strategy. Participants concerns over the health harms from on-demand services encompassed three broad themes-the expansion of access to and availability of unhealthy commodities, the inadequacy of existing restrictions and regulations in the digital environment and the expansion of personalized marketing and promotional platforms for unhealthy commodities. Health policy experts' proposals to mitigate harms included: limiting access and availability, updating regulations and boosting enforcement and limiting promotion and marketing. Collectively, these findings and proposals can inform future research and public health policy decisions to address harms posed by on-demand delivery of unhealthy commodities.

A review of the effects of COVID-19 on food waste

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed significant vulnerabilities in systems of production and consumption. In particular, the economic and social implications of the pandemic highlighted the urgent need for more sustainable and less impactful practices of food production and consumption. Through a systematic literature review, this paper seeks to assess how the pandemic affected the phenomenon of food waste, with the aim of assessing whether the pandemic stimulated changes amongst food system actors, especially consumers. The findings indicate that consumers generally reported behavioural changes during the pandemic and claimed to have adopted sustainable practices that could contribute to reducing food waste. The results also reflect the rapid diffusion of practices such as food delivery during the pandemic, which requires further investigation in terms of its effects on the environment. Simultaneously, supply-demand shocks and disruptions were reported in the areas of production, processing, and retailing, suggesting the occurence of ripple effects. A call is made for greater resilience in the food system, through the adoption of sustainable and less impactful practices, supported by policy.