What is FEED?

FEED (the Food Environment Evidence Directory) is an open-access and interactive database of 160 publications that may be of interest to those looking for interventions or policies to shift diets towards being healthier and more sustainable. 

The publications can be accessed through two interactive tools: 

1. FEED Map: an interactive overview map of the evidence-landscape
2. FEED Visualiser: a tool that allows users to explore the evidence more deeply

A link to the FEED Map is available here.

How were publications included in the FEED?

The following inclusion criteria was used to determine which publications would be included in the database:

1. Evidence type: Publications must be reviews of interventions or policies (systematic or unsystematic, with or without meta-analysis). 
2. Intervention type: Publications must review interventions in the food environment (where consumers make dietary decisions) or at the policy-level. 
3. Outcome type: Publications must report an individual-level consumption based outcome

Publications NOT included in the FEED include: 

1. Primary evidence 
2. Reviews published after January 2023

Detailed methods, including the search strategy and inclusion/exclusion criteria, are available here.

How do I use the Feed Visualizer? 

The publications in the FEED have been categorised by different elements including the relevance of the publication to various subpopulations, the function of the intervention(s) reviewed, and publication elements like type and year of publication (see column on left side). 

The 'cross-tab' and 'map' features of the Visualizer (located in the lower right hand corner) allow you to create your own cross-tabulation of 2 variables or map of 3 variables, according to your own search query. These will show the distribution of publications with evidence relevant to your query, which you can explore in further detail.

These will not show evidence that is exclusive to your exact query. Rather, the query will return all publications that have a methodological focus on at least one element of your query. Subsequently, the query may return publications that have additional focuses beyond the focus of your query. 

Example 'use cases': 

The following maps show the distribution of publications, categorised by various combinations of elements. These were created as an example for how the 'cross-tab' feature works for finding evidence relevant to the following cases: 

1. A school official seeking examples for ways to increase the availability of healthy/sustainable foods in their school, with the goal of improving child and adolescent dietary behaviour. 

2. A public health officer seeking information on the effectiveness of taxing unhealthy/unsustainable foods, with the goal of improving community health

How can I learn more about the FEED or contact the research team?
This project is funded by the NIHR. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

The original research team comprised five researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Dr. Robert Hughes, Rachel Juel, Rebecca Newbould, Aparna Sri Dasaraju, and Dr. Sarah Whitmee). You can contact the research team and submit feedback on either the FEED Map or Visualiser by completing this form.  

These researchers may no longer be working with LSHTM, but by reaching out, the administrator of this form may be able to direct your questions and feedback to the original research team.