Teaching Documents by Irene Farah
Book Reviews by Irene Farah
Papers by Irene Farah
Landscape and Urban Planning, Nov 30, 2023
Frontiers in Public Health, May 24, 2023
Background: The retail food environment in Mexico is characterized by the coexistence of both, fo... more Background: The retail food environment in Mexico is characterized by the coexistence of both, formal and informal food outlets. Yet, the contribution of these outlets to food purchases over time has not been documented. Understanding the longitudinal trends where Mexican households purchase their foods is critical for the development of future food retail policies. Methods: We used data from Mexico's National Income and Expenditure Survey from 1994 to 2020. We categorized food outlets as formal (supermarkets, chain convenience stores, restaurants), informal (street markets, street vendors, acquaintances), and mixed (fiscally regulated or not. i.e., small neighborhood stores, specialty stores, public markets). We calculated the proportion of food and beverage purchases by food outlet for each survey for the overall sample and stratified by education level and urbanicity. Results: In 1994, the highest proportion of food purchases was from mixed outlets, represented by specialty and small neighborhood stores (53.7%), and public markets (15.9%), followed by informal outlets (street vendors and street markets) with 12.3%, and formal outlets from which supermarkets accounted for 9.6%. Over time, specialty and small neighborhood stores increased 4.7 percentage points (p.p.), while public markets decreased 7.5 p.p. Street vendors and street markets decreased 1.6 p.p., and increased 0.5 p.p. for supermarkets. Convenience stores contributed 0.5% at baseline and increased to 1.3% by 2020. Purchases at specialty stores mostly increased in higher socioeconomic levels (13.2 p.p.) and metropolitan cities (8.7 p.p.) while public markets decreased the most in rural households and lower socioeconomic levels (6.0 p.p. & 5.3 p.p.). Supermarkets and chain convenience stores increased the most in rural localities and small cities. Conclusion: In conclusion, we observed an increase in food purchases from the formal sector, nonetheless, the mixed sector remains the predominant food source in Mexico, especially small-neighborhood stores. This is concerning, since these outlets are mostly supplied by food industries. Further, the decrease in purchases from public markets could imply a reduction in the consumption of fresh produce. In order to develop retail food environment policies in Mexico, the
Background: To better inform retail food environment policies in the global south, it is necessar... more Background: To better inform retail food environment policies in the global south, it is necessary to further understand the healthfulness of food and beverages purchased by type of food outlet over time. Methods: Using repeated cross-sectional data from the National Income and Expenditure Survey (ENIGH) in Mexico (2006 to 2020), we categorized food outlets as formal (supermarkets, chain convenience stores), informal (street markets, street vendors, acquaintances), fiscally mixed (public markets, small neighborhood stores, specialty stores), and others. We estimated the proportion of total purchases in each food outlet and the percentage of the types of foods purchased by outlet for the overall sample and stratified by education level and urbanicity. Results: In 2006, the food outlets with the largest proportions of ultra-processed foods purchases were chain convenience stores (49%), small neighborhood stores (37%) and supermarkets (35%). In contrast, the outlets with the highest pr...
Public Health Nutrition
Objective:To examine food and beverage purchasing patterns across formal and informal outlets amo... more Objective:To examine food and beverage purchasing patterns across formal and informal outlets among Mexican households’ and explore differences by urbanicity and income.Design:Cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample of households. We calculated the proportion of total food and beverage expenditure in each household by food outlet type overall and by urbanicity and income. We defined informal outlets as those which are not registered or regulated by tax and fiscal laws. Since some of the outlets within community food environments do not fall in clear categories, we defined a continuum from formal to informal outlets, adding mixed outlets as a category.Setting:Mexico.Participants:Mexican households (n 74 203) from the 2018 National Income and Expenditure Survey.Results:Of the total food and beverage purchases, outlets within the formal food sector (i.e. supermarkets and convenience stores) accounted for 15 % of the purchases, 13 % of purchases occurred in outlets w...
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Teaching Documents by Irene Farah
Book Reviews by Irene Farah
Papers by Irene Farah