Why online food delivery platforms are impacting NCDs and how this can be solved is an area lacking much research. It is striking that these platforms are not actively regulated by Danish legislation on provision of food information, unlike the rest of the food industry.
This project works on describing how online food delivery (FD) platforms affect the relationship between consumers, their food, and NCDs in order to identify technical, social, organizational, and policy requirements. Based on these requirements models and/or technologies that can help consumers to choose healthy and more sustainable foods will be explored.
Make the healthy choice the easy choice. The past decades' changes to the global food system have had dramatic implications for non communicable diseases (NCDs) by influencing the nutritional quality of foods that are available, affordable, and acceptable to consumers.
There are strong indications of the links between energy-dense diets, excess consumption of saturated fat, trans fats, free sugars and salt, low consumption of fruit and vegetables, and the increased burden of obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and some cancers. WHO data show that one in three children aged 6-9 and more than 50% of adults are overweight or obese in 46 countries across Europe.
More worryingly, the problem disproportionately affects the most vulnerable groups in society. After analyzing the socio-technical system of modern, out of home food culture in Denmark, the ticking bomb of online food delivery platforms was evident: a combination of easy access to energy dense food and physical inactivity.
