There is so much happening at the intersection of food and technology, and I’m excited to start sharing more frequent updates on interesting articles and developments in this space. But, as it’s been a while since my last post and I’m nearing the one-year mark of my PhD journey, now feels like the perfect time to get back into writing with a post summarising the central focus of my research—Digital Food Environments.
How do we Interact with the Food System?
Every day, we interact with the food system, whether by buying products, cooking meals or being exposed to advertisements that aim to influence our food choices.
Our food system consists of all the actors, activities and settings that ultimately lead to our food consumption and significantly impact our diets.
As part of this system, we constantly find ourselves in ‘food environments’ designed to promote food products and encourage us to purchase and consume them. Traditionally, we associate these environments with physical supermarkets, convenience stores and food outlets such as fast-food restaurants, whereby we actively make choices about what to eat. Marketing also plays a huge role in these in-person environments where retailers use promotional offers like price discounts and product placement, but also beyond these spaces with brands advertising in public areas and on TV.
When we interact with food environments, we bring our preferences, perceptions and personal factors that each contribute to the food we buy and eat. These factors include:
- Affordability (how much money do we have?)
- Accessibility (what supermarkets are close by and what foods do they sell?)
- Desirability (what foods do we want to eat?)
- Convenience (how easy are the food products/meals to consume?)
The Emergence of Digital Food Environments
Digitalisation is rapidly shifting how we interact with the world, providing new ways for foods to be promoted and sold. More people are now using online food retail to do their weekly shopping, buying takeaway food through meal delivery apps and interacting with food-related content on social media platforms. We are also continuously faced with food and nutrition information online produced by food bloggers, food businesses, nutrition professionals and social media influencers. All of this means that we are now involved in a complex web of interactions that shape our dietary choices. Whether we like it or not, technology is here to stay, and it is likely only to continue to evolve, becoming an extension of our ‘real’ world selves and influencing how we interact with the world around us.
Now that our interaction with food goes beyond what we are exposed to in the real world, we must expand our concept of the food system to include ‘Digital Food Environments’. These include any digital spaces where food is promoted and purchased or where we interact with food-related content and information.
Although there is no standard dictionary definition of a Digital Food Environment, we can think of them as online settings where we are faced with food and drink, which can be accessed via websites or mobile applications. Various online settings exist, including supermarket websites, food/meal delivery apps, social media and video-sharing platforms, internet forums, and gaming platforms.
As technology continues to develop, there is no doubt that our digital interactions with food will evolve. In the future, we will likely need to incorporate concepts such as the metaverse (augmented/virtual reality) and artificial intelligence into our understanding of ‘Digital Food Environments’. All of this may sound complex but be sure to look out for my future articles that will provide information on some of the ways in which technology is impacting our food choices.
Graphics: @platefortheplanet
From Physical to Digital: An Interconnected Experience
Although it’s easy to view the physical and digital as separate, it is essential to remember that they are interconnected and combine to make up this complex web of factors that influence our dietary choices. These environments often mirror and reflect one another. For instance, supermarket websites try to replicate the in-store experience with product category ‘aisles’, while food delivery apps simulate purchases we make in restaurants. With food-related information, blogs and websites echo the content of traditional newspapers and magazines.
In this interconnected landscape, social media plays a significant role. Platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have become digital spaces where food bloggers, influencers, and fitness enthusiasts shape food trends and preferences through their digital presence. As we navigate the digital world, a new dimension emerges – digital food culture created by online personalities, influencers, and trends that spread through social media.
Final Thoughts
Rapid technological developments mean that it can be difficult for research to keep up. To understand how we can leverage these new Digital Food Environments to encourage healthier and more sustainable food choices, we first need to understand the features of these environments and the type of products promoted and sold. My PhD will address this gap and further develop our understanding of the impact that digitalisation is having on our food purchases.
Useful References
Digital Food PhD 
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