Describing and characterising on‐demand delivery of unhealthy commodities in New Zealand

Miles, Hannah N.; Apeldoorn, Brylie; McKerchar, Christina; Curl, Angela; Crossin, Rose

doi:10.1111/1753-6405.13230

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(58 reference statements)

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“…To be considered an on‐demand alcohol service, the service needed to: (i) offer delivery in less than 2 h from time of ordering [16]; and (ii) allow purchase of alcohol by itself (one service requiring bundling of food with limited alcohol was excluded on the basis of not meeting the second criterion).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantifying access to on‐demand alcohol in New Zealand

Crossin,

Norriss,

McKerchar

et al. 2023

Drug and Alcohol Review

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IntroductionOn‐demand delivery (<2 h from ordering) of alcohol is relatively new to New Zealand. We aimed to quantify the number of services available and the number of outlets available to purchase from within on‐demand services. We then tested whether access differed by neighbourhood demographics.MethodsWe identified six on‐demand alcohol services and quantified access to these in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Eighty‐one addresses were sampled according to three variables: (i) density of physical alcohol outlet tertile; (ii) socio‐economic deprivation tertile; and (iii) areas within the top 20th percentile of Māori within each city.ResultsThe median number of alcohol outlets to purchase from across all on‐demand delivery services was five, though this was higher in Christchurch. For all three cities combined, and for Wellington, the number of outlets available on‐demand was highest in areas with the highest density of physical outlets. However, the number of outlets available virtually was not associated with physical outlet density in Auckland or Christchurch. There were no significant differences in access observed for neighbourhood socio‐economic deprivation.Discussion and ConclusionsOn‐demand delivery services are changing local alcohol environments, and may be increasing overall access to alcohol at a neighbourhood level. On‐demand access patterns do not consistently reflect the physical alcohol environment. The current legislative and policy environment in New Zealand pre‐dates the emergence of on‐demand alcohol services. Local councils need to consider ‘virtual’ access as well as physical access when developing Local Alcohol Policies.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Five services identified from our previous study (completed May 2021) [16], which were verified as being still operational, met the above criteria. We updated the search using the previous method [16], which yielded one further service. The search strategy was conducted independently by two researchers; no discrepancies were identified.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying access to on‐demand alcohol in New Zealand

Crossin,

Norriss,

McKerchar

et al. 2023

Drug and Alcohol Review

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“…The urban areas of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch are the focus for this study. These areas were chosen as they have relatively established markets for MDAs and a range of on-demand services available [ 9 ]. These are the three largest urban centres in New Zealand and thus the study collectively covers approximately 45% of the New Zealand population [ 26 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Uber Eats (a meal delivery app; MDA) now connects people with on-demand food from a multitude of restaurants and fast-food outlets in 55 cities and towns across New Zealand [ 6 ]. The reach of these services and their uptake is rapidly expanding, both globally and in New Zealand [ 7 , 8 , 9 ], with demand further accelerated during the COVID-19 lockdowns by the stay home orders and preference for non-contact delivery of goods [ 10 , 11 ]. These on-demand services are distinct from the home delivery of groceries, food boxes or wine orders, which have a longer lead time between order and delivery and are not designed to facilitate immediate consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Food Outlet Access and the Healthiness of Food Available ‘On-Demand’ via Meal Delivery Apps in New Zealand

et al. 2022

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Access to unhealthy commodities is a key factor determining consumption, and therefore influences the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Recently, there has been an increase in the availability of food ‘on-demand’ via meal delivery apps (MDAs). However, the public health and equity impacts of this shift are not yet well understood. This study focused on three MDAs in New Zealand and aimed to answer (1) what is the health profile of the foods being offered on-demand, (2) how many food outlets are available and does this differ by physical access or neighbourhood demographics and (3) does the health profile of foods offered differ by physical access or neighbourhood demographics? A dataset was created by sampling a set of street addresses across a range of demographic variables, and recording the menu items and number of available outlets offered to each address. Machine learning was utilised to evaluate the healthiness of menu items, and we examined if healthiness and the number of available outlets varied by neighbourhood demographics. Over 75% of menu items offered by all MDAs were unhealthy and approximately 30% of all menu items across the three MDAs scored at the lowest level of healthiness. Statistically significant differences by demographics were identified in one of the three MDAs in this study, which suggested that the proportion of unhealthy foods offered was highest in areas with the greatest socioeconomic deprivation and those with a higher proportion of Māori population. Policy and regulatory approaches need to adapt to this novel mode of access to unhealthy foods, to mitigate public health consequences and the effects on population groups already more vulnerable to non-communicable diseases.

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“…Online services (via websites and/or apps) that enable rapid on-demand delivery of food, alcohol and smoking/vaping products (usually in less than 2 h) ( Duthie et al , 2023 ) are expanding both globally ( Pinho et al , 2020 ) and in Aotearoa New Zealand ( Miles et al , 2022 ). Such on-demand services typically coordinate between consumers, multiple outlets and third-party delivery services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Promoting health in the digital environment: health policy experts’ responses to on-demand delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

McKerchar,

Bidwell,

Curl

et al. 2023

Health Promotion International

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Services offering on-demand delivery of unhealthy commodities, such as fast food, alcohol and smoking/vaping products have proliferated in recent years. It is well known that the built environment can be health promoting or harmful to health, but there has been less consideration of the digital environment. Increased availability and accessibility of these commodities may be associated with increased consumption, with harmful public health implications. Policy regulating the supply of these commodities was developed before the introduction of on-demand services and has not kept pace with the digital environment. This paper reports on semi-structured interviews with health policy experts on the health harms of the uptake in on-demand delivery of food, alcohol and smoking/vaping products, along with their views on policies that might mitigate these harms. We interviewed 14 policy experts from central and local government agencies and ministries, health authorities, non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and university research positions in Aotearoa New Zealand using a purposive sampling strategy. Participants concerns over the health harms from on-demand services encompassed three broad themes—the expansion of access to and availability of unhealthy commodities, the inadequacy of existing restrictions and regulations in the digital environment and the expansion of personalized marketing and promotional platforms for unhealthy commodities. Health policy experts’ proposals to mitigate harms included: limiting access and availability, updating regulations and boosting enforcement and limiting promotion and marketing. Collectively, these findings and proposals can inform future research and public health policy decisions to address harms posed by on-demand delivery of unhealthy commodities.

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Describing and characterising on‐demand delivery of unhealthy commodities in New Zealand

Cited by 10 publications

References 28 publications

Quantifying access to on‐demand alcohol in New Zealand

Quantifying access to on‐demand alcohol in New Zealand

Food Outlet Access and the Healthiness of Food Available ‘On-Demand’ via Meal Delivery Apps in New Zealand

Promoting health in the digital environment: health policy experts’ responses to on-demand delivery in Aotearoa New Zealand

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