Methods for using worker-centered research to improve food donation and reduce wasted food in a grocery retail setting.

Introduction: This project took a novel approach to reducing wasted food and improving food donation by prioritizing and centering the ideas and experiences of frontline grocery retail workers, who were integrally involved in each step of the research process. In this paper, we describe in detail the methods used in the Food Donation Champions Project, a worker-centered project in collaboration with a large US grocery retail chain. We provide the context, process, and lessons learned through our partnership with corporate leaders and frontline workers.

Child Beverage Consumption in US Early Care and Education Settings, 2008-2020.

Objective: Describe young children's beverage intake in early care and education (ECE) settings between 2008 and 2020 across multiple states in the US.

Methods: Multivariable-adjusted, age-stratified estimates of beverage consumption among children aged 12-60 months (n = 4,457) in ECE centers and homes (n = 846).

Results: During any given day in ECE, younger children had a 79.

Projected Impact of Replacing Juice With Whole Fruit in Early Care and Education.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to simulate potential changes in dietary intake and food costs by replacing juice with whole fruit among children ages 1-5 years attending U.S. early care and education settings between 2008 and 2020.

Evaluating Food Procurement against the EAT- Planetary Health Diet in a Sample of U.S. Universities.

Aligning institutional food procurement with planetary health targets offers opportunities to improve nutrition and reduce food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study compared foods procured by 19 university dining programs in the U.S.

Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Food Acquisition Behavior, and Food Insecurity Before and After the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout.

Objectives: To assess changes in food acquisition behavior, food insecurity, and dietary behavior and identify factors associated with fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption during the transitional period (before and after the initial vaccine rollout for all adults) of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design: Successive independent samples design. Online surveys were conducted from October 2020 to February 2021 (time 1, before the vaccine rollout) and from October 2021 to December 2021 (time 2, after the vaccine rollout).

Commercial weight-loss diets, greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater consumption.

Background: Weight-loss attempts are widespread in the United States, with many using commercial weight-loss diet plans for guidance and support. Accordingly, dietary suggestions within these plans influence the nation's food-related environmental footprint.

Methods: We modelled United States (US) per capita greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) and water footprints associated with seven commercial weight-loss diets, the US baseline, and selected other dietary patterns.

When increasing vegetable production may worsen food availability gaps: A simulation model in India.

Translating agricultural productivity into food availability depends on food supply chains. Agricultural policy and research efforts promote increased horticultural crop production and yields, but the ability of low-resource food supply chains to handle increased volumes of perishable crops is not well understood. This study developed and used a discrete event simulation model to assess the impact of increased production of potato, onion, tomato, brinjal (eggplant), and cabbage on vegetable supply chains in Odisha, India.

Exploring U.S. Food System Workers' Intentions to Work While Ill during the Early COVID-19 Pandemic: A National Survey.

With "stay at home" orders in effect during early COVID-19, many United States (U.S.) food system workers attended in-person work to maintain national food supply chain operations.

Dietary Behaviors among New Users of Meal-Kit Services during the Early Months of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way people acquired food, including increased use of meal-kit delivery services. Investigators analyzed data from a national survey of US adults collected between July 2020 and September 2020, to describe new users of meal-kit services during the pandemic and explore associations between new use of meal-kits and dietary behaviors. Bivariate and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to identify differences in demographic characteristics and reported dietary behaviors between new and never meal-kit users.

Consumer Seafood Waste and the Potential of a 'Direct-from-Frozen' Approach to Prevention.

Few food waste interventions focus on drivers distinct to particular food groups, such as seafood. Given suggestive evidence that seafood may be wasted at exceptionally high rates, and given its environmental, economic and nutritional value, this research provides insights into seafood-specific consumer food waste interventions. We performed three complementary sub-studies to examine consumer and retailer views regarding seafood waste and frozen seafood as well as perceptions of an intervention providing chef-created recipes to promote cooking frozen seafood without defrosting.

"Maybe it's still good?" A qualitative study of factors influencing food waste and application of the E.P.A. Food recovery hierarchy in U.S. supermarkets.

About 31% of post-harvest food available for human consumption is lost or wasted annually in the United States. Roughly one third (43 billion lbs.) of food loss occurs in grocery and other retail food stores.

Preschool Healthy Food Policy Did Not Increase Percent of Food Wasted: Evidence from the Carolinas.

This research evaluates the effects of a South Carolina (SC) policy, which changed the nutrition standards for foods served in early care and education (ECE) settings, on wasted food. A two-group pre-test/post-test evaluation was performed in ECE centers serving children age 3-5 from households with lower incomes in SC ( = 102 children from 34 centers, intervention) and North Carolina (NC; = 99 children from 30 centers, comparison). Direct observation was performed to assess the quantity and kcal of food served and quantity and percent of food discarded, by food group and nutrient, enabling assessment of waste in the absence of intervention.

Healthy Eating Policy Improves Children's Diet Quality in Early Care and Education in South Carolina.

Policies to promote healthy foods in early care and education (ECE) in the United States exist, but few have been prospectively evaluated. In South Carolina, a statewide program serving low-income children in ECE enacted new policies promoting healthy foods. We conducted an evaluation to measure changes in dietary intake among children in ECE exposed and not exposed to the new policy.

The relationship between joining a US free trade agreement and processed food sales, 2002-2016: a comparative interrupted time-series analysis.

Objective: To examine changes in sales of highly processed foods, including infant formulas, in countries joining free trade agreements (FTAs) with the US.

Design: Annual country-level data for food and beverage sales come from Euromonitor International. Analyses are conducted in a comparative interrupted time-series (CITS) framework using multivariate random-effects linear models, adjusted for key confounders: gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, percent of the population living in urban areas and female labor force participation rate.

Understanding and addressing waste of food in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Introduction: Multiple estimates suggest the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) may have one of the highest rates of wasted food globally. The KSA has limited arable lands and scarce water and thus relies on extensive imports and food subsidies to meet food demand. Accordingly, waste and loss of food are a significant concern for food security.

Misunderstood food date labels and reported food discards: A survey of U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors.

Introduction: Food date labels such as "best before" and "sell by" are largely unregulated in the United States (U.S.), although new voluntary standards are coming into effect.

World Trade Organization membership and changes in noncommunicable disease risk factors: a comparative interrupted time-series analysis, 1980-2013.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the availability of several commodities with both harmful and protective effects for the development of noncommunicable diseases.

Methods: We used a natural experiment design to compare trends in the domestic supply of tobacco, alcohol and seven food groups, between 1980 and 2013, in 21 countries or territories joining WTO after 1995 and 26 non-member countries, using propensity score weights. We applied a comparative interrupted time-series framework, by using multivariate random-effects linear models, adjusted for gross domestic product per capita, the percentages of urban population and female labour force participation.

Urban Food Supply Chain Resilience for Crises Threatening Food Security: A Qualitative Study.

Background: Businesses and organizations involved in growing, distributing, and supplying food may face severe disruptions from natural and human-generated hazards, ranging from extreme weather to political unrest. Baltimore, Maryland, is developing policies to improve local food system organizations' ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptive events and ultimately to contribute to food system resilience.

Objectives: To identify factors that may be associated with organization-level food system resilience, how these factors may play out in disaster response, and how they may relate to organizations' confidence in their ability to withstand disruptive events.

Microplastics in Seafood and the Implications for Human Health.

Purpose Of Review: We describe evidence regarding human exposure to microplastics via seafood and discuss potential health effects.

Recent Findings: Shellfish and other animals consumed whole pose particular concern for human exposure. If there is toxicity, it is likely dependent on dose, polymer type, size, surface chemistry, and hydrophobicity.

Reducing meat consumption in the USA: a nationally representative survey of attitudes and behaviours.

Objective: Excess meat consumption, particularly of red and processed meats, is associated with nutritional and environmental health harms. While only a small portion of the population is vegetarian, surveys suggest many Americans may be reducing their meat consumption. To inform education campaigns, more information is needed about attitudes, perceptions, behaviours and foods eaten in meatless meals.

Using a trauma-informed policy approach to create a resilient urban food system.

Objective: Food insecurity is associated with toxic stress and adverse long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It can be experienced chronically and also triggered or exacerbated by natural and human-made hazards that destabilize the food system. The Baltimore Food System Resilience Advisory Report was created to strengthen the resilience of the city's food system and improve short- and long-term food security.

Wasted Food, Wasted Nutrients: Nutrient Loss from Wasted Food in the United States and Comparison to Gaps in Dietary Intake.

Background: Previous research has estimated that wasted food in the United States contains between 1,249 and 1,400 kcal per capita per day, but little is known about amounts of other nutrients embedded in the 31% to 40% of food that is wasted.

Objective: This research aimed to calculate the nutritional value of food wasted at the retail and consumer levels in the US food supply, and contextualize the amount of nutrient loss in terms of gaps between current and recommended intakes and estimated food recovery potential.

Design: Data from the National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference were used to calculate the nutritional value of retail- and consumer-level waste of 213 commodities in the US Department of Agriculture Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data series for 27 nutrients in 2012.

U.S. Food System Working Conditions as an Issue of Food Safety.

Food workers' health and hygiene are common pathways to foodborne disease outbreaks. Improving food system jobs is important to food safety because working conditions impact workers' health, hygiene, and safe food handling. Stakeholders from key industries have advanced working conditions as an issue of public safety in the United States.

A Food Systems Approach To Healthy Food And Agriculture Policy.

Food has become a prominent focus of US public health policy. The emphasis has been almost exclusively on what Americans eat, not what is grown or how it is grown. A field of research, policy, and practice activities addresses the food-health-agriculture nexus, yet the work is still often considered "alternative" to the mainstream.

Reducing Food Loss And Waste While Improving The Public's Health.

An estimated 30 percent of the global food supply is lost or wasted, as is about 40 percent of the US food supply. There are valuable synergies between efforts to reduce food loss and waste and those promoting public health. To demonstrate the potential impact of building upon these synergies, we present an analysis of policies and interventions addressing food loss and waste, food security, food safety, and nutrition.