Department of Health Systems and Populations, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia.
Prevention Research Collaboration, Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Jun 10;17(11):4154. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17114154.
Only 5% of Australian children and adults eat enough fruit and vegetables. Two common barriers are high cost and limited access. Food co-operatives ('co-ops') may have the potential to reduce these barriers. We conducted a scoping analysis of food co-ops in the Sydney region to describe their characteristics and objectives. We also conducted a survey of members and non-members of co-ops to assess their fruit and vegetable intake using validated questions. Fifteen food co-ops were identified in the Sydney region and the most common objective was to provide cheap affordable produce. Most co-ops (61%) were in areas of high socio-economic status (SES). Members of food co-ops had a higher vegetable intake than non-members [mean difference (MD) = 0.54 serves/daily; 95% confidence interval (CI) of 0.15 to 0.93] and were also more likely to meet the recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake [odds ratio (OR) = 4.77 (95% CI = 1.15, 19.86)]. Implications of this study are that if food co-ops can be implemented on a wider scale, they hold potential for improving fruit and vegetable intakes.
仅有 5%的澳大利亚儿童和成年人摄入足够的水果和蔬菜。高成本和有限的获取途径是两个常见的障碍。食品合作社（“合作社”）可能有潜力降低这些障碍。我们对悉尼地区的食品合作社进行了范围界定分析，以描述其特征和目标。我们还对合作社的成员和非成员进行了调查，使用经过验证的问题评估他们的水果和蔬菜摄入量。在悉尼地区确定了 15 家食品合作社，最常见的目标是提供廉价的农产品。大多数合作社（61%）位于社会经济地位较高（SES）的地区。食品合作社的成员比非成员摄入更多的蔬菜[平均差异（MD）= 0.54 份/天；95%置信区间（CI）为 0.15 至 0.93]，并且更有可能符合水果和蔬菜摄入量的建议[比值比（OR）= 4.77（95%CI = 1.15, 19.86)]。这项研究的意义在于，如果能更广泛地实施食品合作社，它们有可能改善水果和蔬菜的摄入量。
