Unhealthy food in the streetscape has increased by 30 percent over the past 10 years, and doctors and scientists are seriously concerned about this. It contributes to rising rates of obesity and diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Nutritional scientist Jaap Seidell of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam tells Pointer: “We see that supply drives demand. In other words, when there is a lot of unhealthy food available, a lot of unhealthy food is eaten.”
About the research
In 2021, there were 882 secondary schools that had already existed in 2011. Pointer can calculate the change over 10 years for these schools. Pointer examined where pupils could get fast food within a five-minute walk (snack bars, grill rooms, shawarma restaurants, etc.), as well as a supermarket or other unhealthy food such as ice cream or sweets. What does this show? Over 10 years, the number of fast-food outlets within a five-minute walk of schools increased by 40 percent. The number of supermarkets in the immediate vicinity of schools also increased by 26 percent.
In addition to fast-food outlets and supermarkets, there are various other locations where unhealthy food is sold. This is a small group. When Pointer includes these locations, such as ice-cream parlours and sweet shops, it arrives at a total increase of 35 percent over 10 years in the number of locations where unhealthy food can be purchased.
Disadvantage scores
Pointer also looks at the schools’ disadvantage scores: these are scores calculated by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) for each school and passed on to the Ministry of Education so that it can determine how to distribute education funding among schools. If a school has many ‘disadvantaged pupils’, for example pupils whose parents have a low level of education or debts, the expectation is that they may have more difficulty at school and therefore require more education funding.
When Pointer ranks all secondary schools in order of disadvantage score, it sees that fast-food availability increased the most at schools with a high score—that is, schools with the most disadvantaged pupils. The increase was 48 percent. By contrast, the increase at schools with a low score, meaning few disadvantaged pupils, was ‘only’ 32 percent. The increase in supermarkets within a five-minute walk was also greater at schools with many disadvantaged pupils (39 percent) than at schools with few disadvantaged pupils (15 percent).
According to Jaap Seidell, the sharp increase at schools with many disadvantaged pupils is particularly painful: “All this temptation worsens these children’s problems. Municipalities should be able to set limits on the amount of junk food.”
Junior minister finds rise in fast food around schools ‘shocking’
Junior Minister for Health Maarten van Ooijen says that he finds the increase in fast food around schools quite ‘shocking’, and that it is not surprising that children choose it. He also considers it ‘especially distressing’ that availability has increased the most at schools with many disadvantaged pupils.
Van Ooijen is considering legislative measures to make the environment healthier, for example by giving municipalities the necessary tools: “There is nothing wrong with eating fast food occasionally, but for the sake of our health we need to do something about the current overload.” The junior minister will present plans after the summer.
Pointer’s website features a map showing the unhealthy food environment around all secondary schools in 2021. When you select a school that already existed in 2011, you can see the increase (or decrease) in the number of unhealthy food outlets.