Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is of poorer microbial quality and safety (Koro et al.
2010
; Gillespie et al.
2010
;
Signs et al.
2011
). This chapter will review what is known about differential retail
food access as well as how and why it might result in availability of poorer micro-
bial quality of food to low socioeconomic and minority racial/ethnic populations.
It will discuss the methods available to try to detect if differences exist and will
review the literature available to date about the potential safety and microbial qual-
ity of food available at the retail level to populations of different demographics.
Finally, it will identify areas where further research is needed.
11.2
Food Deserts and Low Socioeconomic and Minority
Racial and Ethnic Populations
Compared to residents of high SES areas, it has been found that residents of low
SES areas have less access to large scale, chain stores, i.e., supermarkets (Morland
et al.
2002
; Baker et al.
2006
). Residents of low SES areas, however, have greater
access to smaller, independently operated food markets and fast-food/take-out res-
taurants, compared to those of high SES (Morland et al.
2002
; Zenk et al.
2005
;
Baker et al.
2006
; Moore and Diez Roux
2006
). Examination of retail food outlets
in selected areas of Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Minnesota found
that wealthier neighborhoods had more supermarkets than the poorest neighbor-
hoods and that there were four times more supermarkets in white neighborhoods
compared to African American neighborhoods (Morland et al.
2002
). In Detroit, it
was found that impoverished neighborhoods where African Americans resided
were, on average, 1.1 miles further from a supermarket than impoverished Caucasian
neighborhoods (Zenk et al.
2005
). Moore and Diez Roux examined selected census
tracts in North Carolina, Maryland, and New York and found that both low-income
and increased minority populations were associated with fewer supermarkets, but
more grocery stores (Moore and Diez Roux
2006
). Research has identifi ed that
areas of differential food access exist in rural communities as well. Examination of
a rural county in South Carolina found that convenience stores outnumbered super-
markets and were less likely to carry healthy foods (Liese et al.
2007
).
With mounting evidence of differential food access and increasing concerns
about the rise of obesity and associated conditions in low-income and minority pop-
ulations, the 2008 Farm Bill directed the US Department of Agriculture to perform
a 1 year study on low food access (LFA). This study resulted in a report to congress
which defi ned a food desert as a US census tract which met both low-income and
low-access criteria (Ver Ploeg et al.
2009
). Low income was defi ned as a census
tract with a poverty rate greater than or equal to 20 % or in which the median family
income did not exceed 80 % of the statewide or metro-area median family income.
Low access was defi ned as greater than one mile away from a supermarket in urban
areas, assuming walkability or greater than 20 miles away in a rural area. It is impor-
tant to note that in this study, supermarkets and large grocery stores which provided
