engleski

Towards a framework for identifying „food desserts“ in Croatia

According to Laurence (1998, in Guy, Clarke, Eyre, 2004), ‘food deserts’ are ‘areas of inner cities, where cheap, nutritious food is virtually unobtainable. Car-less residents, unable to reach out-of-town supermarkets, depend on the corner shop where prices are high, products are processed and fresh fruit and vegetable are poor or non-existent’. In literature exist as many different definitions of ‘food deserts’ as there are authors who researched them. Nevertheless, the issue of unavailability of well stocked supermarkets and local stores, primarily in fresh products, such as fresh fruit and vegetable, results in an uneven access to healthy balanced diet for some inhabitants, an extremely poor diet, that leads to a whole range of health issues. An unhealthy population is inefficient in their private and professional activities, they are unproductive and in the end, the community bears the costs of their treatments, absence from work and various forms of social support. ‘Food deserts’ have been identified in cities of UK, USA, Canada and Australia. In Croatia, there has been no similar research, which is important in order to identify the potential problem at an early stage and implement timely interventions. Various authors have used many different tools and methods investigating potential ‘food deserts’. Some analysed the spatial distribution of stores in an area, others studied availability of a list of healthy foods and their prices in a store sample, distance of stores from consumers, differentiating the levels of neighbourhood affluence and store types, while the third group researched consumers and their behaviour regarding shopping and consuming products that make up a healthy diet. Often, researches combined several methods. As official statistics and data bases in Croatia are less developed than in UK or USA, in this paper authors aim to investigate which ‘food desert’ evaluation methods are applicable, use and test them analysing whether ‘food deserts’ exist in Zagreb and to create a framework applicable for researches of ‘food deserts’ in other Croatian cities. The proposition that there is a ‘food desert’ in Zagreb will be tested using the mapping technique, identifying a neighbourhood with potential ‘food desert’ characteristics and conducting a primary research of stores selling food products in the neighbourhood. Stores will be analysed regarding availability of selected fresh products, primarily fresh fruit and vegetable, and regarding prices of those products. Findings of proposed research are expected to set ground for further research of consumers, as well as guidelines for developing urban planning and retail operations policies and standards.

food desert; food access; spatial store distribution; Croatia

Rad je kao predavanje prezentiran na skupu 7th International Conference For Consumer Behaviour and Retailing Research (CIRCLE Conference 2010.), održanom od 07.-09.04.2010., Estoril, Portugal.