Understanding the Food Environment: the Role of Practice Theory and Policy Implications

The last decade has witnessed an increase in the number of malnourished people worldwide, and particularly of people suffering from overweight and obesity. Research has shown the link between diet quality and the under- lying food systems through the intermediation of the food environment. Specifically, a number of studies have analysed the role of the food retail environment and its impact on dietary intake largely by using quantitative geospatial tools – an approach that has been criticized on the grounds of its limited integration of social aspects linked to people’s daily paths and lifestyles. This chapter contributes to a better understanding of the food environment by using social practice theory. Social practice theory can help complement the ‘objective’ measures used to study the retail environment, with more ‘subjective’ measures linked to its more symbolic and social dimensions by using more qualitative and/or mixed methods. With a view to changing people’s food patterns, it is of fundamental importance to understand how food environments shape practices and vice versa, and where change can come about. In some cases, change can be triggered at the level of the material aspects of the food environment, such as the physical outlets where people buy their foods, and sometimes it can be triggered (also) by a change in the meaning attributed to food. This has implications for the types of policies adopted by governments and relevant stakeholders: policies need to be consistent and coherent, and aimed at changing both the material aspects of the food environment as well as the competence people need to make it work and the meaning attached to healthy eating.