How food delivery apps represent a potential health opportunity

Opinion: changing the design of food delivery apps could help nudge us towards rather than impede healthier choices

Research has shown that some strategies could help us make a healthier choice more often when ordering food online. These include such prompts as adding labels which indicate how healthy a food is, having healthier options displayed more prominently, having smaller portions selected by default, or offering prompts to swap selections for healthier alternatives. A recent study found that some of these strategies could reduce the calorie content of orders in a simulated food delivery app by between 2% and 15%.

The same study also demonstrated that a reduction in the price of orders would not necessarily lead to a reduction in revenue for the food delivery app operators or the food businesses who rely on them. This is done by considering the cost of meals, as well as their calorie content when applying such changes.

While initial research in this area is promising, further work is required to assess such actions in a real-world setting. It also requires an examination of efficacy over the long term, and the relationship between the cost of implementing changes with the benefit to the public.

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Our current choices on food delivery apps are influenced by in-app recommendations promoting foods and outlets that are selling well or outlets who have paid for this promotion. If we have previously ordered a less healthy option, this will be reinforced with recommendations based on users' previous behaviour. Over-ordering is also incentivised through minimum order values, discounts and promotions. These features could be reversed to offer educational information about the potential impact of previous choices on our health or to offer incentives to purchase healthy options.

But despite this, little is known about food delivery apps and their impact on health in Ireland. It is widely recognised that a systems approach is needed to help prevent major public health issues. Such an approach to obesity and related health problems in Ireland is set out in the Government’s obesity action plan. This involves both focusing on the choices we make as individuals and changing the environment in which we make those choices. It aims to make the healthy choice the easiest and most convenient one without removing freedom of choice.

The environment in which we make choices about food is influenced by many factors such as our physical, economic, policy and cultural surroundings. The digital world is increasingly becoming part of our food environment, as seen from social media, digital health promotion campaigns, digital food marketing and especially food delivery apps.

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These apps disproportionately increase access to foods of lower nutritional quality. While the nutritional information for the foods available on these apps is limited and often absent, research based on text descriptions of meals suggests that the majority of offerings are of lower nutritional quality in several countries including the US, Australia and the Netherlands. Traditionally, people have accessed takeaway food from outlets less than 2km from their home, but new reseach shows food delivery apps have facilitated people to access a much broader, but less healthy, range of options in a much larger geographical area, potentially up to 10km from home.

The relatively recent emergence of food delivery apps, and the rate at which they can change and evolve, means that research and policy in this area are still limited compared to other aspects of our food environment. The resulting knowledge gap of their potential impacts on public health is concerning given their reach. While they are restricted to urban areas, the population density in these areas allows these apps to have user numbers in excess of one million people in Ireland. The growth of this multibillion-euro sector is expected to continue for the coming years, with an increase of over a third forecast in the number of users in Ireland by 2027.

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While promising, the research in this area that will be required to inform policy is still emerging. The Government’s obesity action plan acknowledges the importance of securing support from the commercial sector to help deliver a healthier food environment, with its focus being on the food industry. As the food environment changes, policies must also consider food delivery apps as part of that environment. Rather than being part of the problem, collaboration and sharing of data and information between researchers, industry, policy makers, and consumers could allow them to become part of the solution.

Food delivery apps are only one part of our food environment, but they represent a potential public health opportunity. This is especially so if the information they provide and the way they provide that information is changed to promote rather than impede healthy choices for the millions of people they serve.

Cathal O'Hara is a PhD student in Nutrition at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics and the UCD Institute of Food and Health

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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