Food delivery services making junk foods more accessible

A study looking at online food delivery options in Sydney and Auckland has found majority of the most popular menu items categorised as 'unhealthy'. A review on data from an online food delivery service has found the majority of popular food outlets and menu items advertised are classified as 'unhealthy' under independent guidelines. University of Sydney researchers examined publicly available data on the healthiness of the most popular food outlets and menu items advertised on an online food delivery service (Uber Eats) in two international cities - Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand. The time period examined was not during government restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The work also highlights a discrepancy - nearly 90 percent of food options and food outlets with the 'healthy' tag on Uber Eats, were considered 'unhealthy' according to an independent scoring system of healthiness. The findings published today in Nutrients is understood to be the first published research of its kind. " What sets this study apart is that we used evidence-based and independent rating systems such as the Australian Dietary Guidelines to assess nutritional quality of their popular menu items," says lead author Dr Stephanie Partridge , from the University of Sydney's Westmead Applied Research Centre ,  Charles Perkins Centre and Faculty of Medicine and Health.