Digitalization of the Retail Food Environment: Modernizing Food Access, Highlighting Health Equity, and Identifying Opportunities for Future Research and Practice

The digital transformation of the retail food environment is reshaping public health, producing both positive and negative impacts on how US consumers access food. This Research Report synthesizes these changes and explains why public health nutrition must modernize definitions and measures of food access, highlighting priority directions for new measurement approaches. Finally, we discuss future research and practice needs and directions, and describe how innovative nutrition education and behavior strategies, appropriate measurement, and policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) approaches can align public health and health equity efforts with the ongoing digital transformation of the food environment.