Healthy Food Environments

Everyone wants a healthy environment for their kids to grow up in. However, where you live can make that a lot harder. Our research aimed to examine the different food environments that make up our city of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.

Using electronic sales (EFTPOS) data and census data, we can show that lower income communities are disproportionately impacted by unhealthy food environments. Experts have called for communities to have a mechanism to decline more stores opening in their neighbourhood, and for more controls on junk food advertising.

The Helen Clark Foundation, in partnership with the Health Coalition Aotearoa, commissioned Market View to provide all EFTPOS transactions for fast food outlets.

This data was first released to Stuff and discussed in a Sunday Star Times article and is now being provided to journalists, researchers, and members of the public as part of our commitment to making research information available to all.

The data collated six years of spending by taking actual transactions in businesses classed as takeaway or fast-food outlets. The data has limitations. It is not a complete picture of unhealthy food sales – it does not capture cash sales, or supermarkets and dairies, and it only shows where food was bought, not where it was consumed.

Reviewing the data reveals neighbourhoods with higher levels of deprivation have higher volumes of sales for takeaway items as well as increased numbers of vendors selling takeaway foods. This has impacts on the community that lives in the area – with more stores comes more advertising.

Comparing the top 15 suburbs for junk food sales (in 2018 – to match when the census data was collected) revealed 14 were in areas of higher-than-average economic deprivation.

In total, Aucklanders spent an eye watering $6.7 billion on takeaways over the past six years.

The full data set is available on request and includes:

• Market View Data for the total expenditure over six years
• Market View Data breaking down the takeaway spend into Statistical Area 2 units
• Collated spreadsheet linking 2018 spend to the 2018 deprivation index and population data
• Heat maps of areas of Auckland for use in research
• Point files for creation of heat maps and data analysis in statistical analysis tools

We ask any publication utilising the data credit The Helen Clark Foundation.