Food Co-Operatives: A Potential Community-Based Strategy to Improve Fruit and Vegetable Intake in Australia

Seema Mihrshahi, Stephanie R. Partridge, Xiaolei Zheng, Divya Ramachandran, Debbie Chia, Sinead Boylan and Josephine Y. Chau
Additional contact information
Seema Mihrshahi: Department of Health Systems and Populations, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
Stephanie R. Partridge: Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Xiaolei Zheng: Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Divya Ramachandran: Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Debbie Chia: Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Sinead Boylan: Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia
Josephine Y. Chau: Department of Health Systems and Populations, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-14

Abstract: Only 5% of Australian children and adults eat enough fruit and vegetables. Two common barriers are high cost and limited access. Food co-operatives (‘co-ops’) may have the potential to reduce these barriers. We conducted a scoping analysis of food co-ops in the Sydney region to describe their characteristics and objectives. We also conducted a survey of members and non-members of co-ops to assess their fruit and vegetable intake using validated questions. Fifteen food co-ops were identified in the Sydney region and the most common objective was to provide cheap affordable produce. Most co-ops (61%) were in areas of high socio-economic status (SES). Members of food co-ops had a higher vegetable intake than non-members [mean difference (MD) = 0.54 serves/daily; 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.15 to 0.93] and were also more likely to meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake [odds ratio (OR) = 4.77 (95% CI = 1.15, 19.86)]. Implications of this study are that if food co-ops can be implemented on a wider scale, they hold potential for improving fruit and vegetable intakes.

Keywords: fruit; vegetable; food co-operatives; diet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4154/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/11/4154/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:11:p:4154-:d:369817

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().