Social position—defined by household income and job role—is linked to food delivery preferences in England, suggests an analysis of consumer research published in the open access journal . Affluent households are twice as likely as less well off ones to shop online for groceries, while households in lower social grades are up to twice as likely to use food delivery apps for take-away meals. And users of these apps are more likely to be living with obesity, the findings indicate.
Digital on-demand technology has rapidly and dramatically reshaped and delivery, making grocery and prepared take-away meals more accessible and convenient, and increasing the range of options available, note the researchers. But previous research suggests that while buying groceries online is associated with healthier food choices, use of online take-away food delivery apps is rather less so. This prompted the researchers to explore the impact of the ongoing changes to food retail.
In particular, they wanted to look at the extent to which the use of online food delivery services might be informed by indicators of —income and job role–and whether use of these services is associated with healthy or unhealthy weight. They accessed data from a large consumer panel previously used in the Transport for London Study, which evaluated the impact of the removal of high fat, salt, and sugar foods advertising on the Transport for London network. This entailed analyzing food and drink purchase records and.