The Community Food Environment of a Brazilian Metropolis

This study aimed to describe the community food environment of a Brazilian metropolis using secondary data from 2015. To construct this database, the State and Municipal Secretariat were asked to provide information on 12 types of food sales establishment in the city of Belo Horizonte. Establishments that were not common between the two databases were checked using the Google Street View database. The final database consisted of establishments that were virtually checked as well as existing establishments in the two secondary databases. The establishments included in the final database were categorized as healthy, unhealthy, or mixed according to the predominance of food sales. Unhealthy establishments are the most available in the food environment. Lower income areas have a lower availability of all types of establishment, particularly healthy ones. As income increases, there is an increase in the availability of mixed and unhealthy establishments. Understanding the food environment of cities is important for decision makers to identify places where the implementation of public equipment for food safety and nutrition is necessary.