social and cultural aspects of food shopping

Healthwatch Essex undertook an exploratory piece of research to understand food shopping journeys for mothers in a relatively deprived part of Essex.  They used photo dialogue and photo elicitation techniques. The photo-elicitation stage of the project involved participants photographing their individual food-shopping journeys, returning the disposable camera so that the photographs could be developed and then meeting up with a researcher to discuss the photographs in an interview. Hence, the photographs become important visual cues that aid the development of knowledge between the researcher and participant regarding the meaning of the photograph to the participant, and what their motivations were for taking them.  They worked with two mothers.

The mothers had a visceral and emotional reaction to some of the photographs of food (both in the initial focus group, and in their own photos), which extended to a desire to ‘treat’ members of their families with certain items, using food to express their care and maternal instinct (the food-shopping budget was often directed in favour of the likes and dislikes of their partners or children). This emotional and/or social response to food further extended to a preference when foodshopping for branded items, specifically the fizzy drink ‘Coke’, which was deemed to taste ‘better’ than other ‘own-brand’ alternatives. This is significant, as the mothers were from a low-income background and conducted foodshopping on a very limited budget.

Through conversation with the mothers, ‘Coke’ was in fact revealed to be a very significant aspect of both their foodways, and a clear cultural norm – both spoke extensively about their own and their wider circle of friends’ drinking of ‘Coke’, commenting on its consumption during most social engagements. The research thus further highlights how government initiatives can be misinterpreted, and this has implications in light of the recent government decision to tax fizzy drinks from 2018 (but not fruit juice, which is more often marketed to/as for children ). In abstaining from drinking ‘Coke’ for health reasons one mother reported that she was drinking juice instead, but a number of recent surveys demonstrate the fact that sugar content in fruit juice is dangerously high and, in fact, no different from their ‘unhealthy’ alternatives, fizzy drinks.

Nevertheless, the mothers both had a relatively good understanding of basic healthy foods, and tried to incorporate vegetables in their diet where they could; the problem thus seems to really lie in what they did not realise was unhealthy. For example, pre-prepared sauces, which were described as ‘lazy’ but ‘nutritious’, and the misinterpretation of fruit juice being a healthy alternative to fizzy drinks.

Interestingly, both mothers also said they were personally willing to eat more healthily, but when shopping they could not afford to cater to making different meals for different family members, so all-rounder ‘crowdpleasing’ items such as the ‘pre-prepared’ sauces were opted for instead