Changing food consumption patterns have occurred in parallel with food environment transitions, i.e., ‘shifts in the availability, affordability, convenience, promotion, quality, and sustainability of foods within the environment’ We now live in an ‘obesogenic food environment’ were energy-dense ultra-palatable foods are highly available and heavily advertised and promoted and the number of food outlets selling these foods) has increased substantially. There is a scarcity of studies that examine how changes in local food environments result in changes in eating behaviors. Better understanding of the impact of food environment transitions will substantiate leverage points for improving local food environments, empowering policymakers to undertake action.

A way to overcome this is to the use of a comprehensive, ecologically valid 3D model of a local food environment that users can experience and interact with through Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR, budgeted). This is a ‘computer-generated’ digital environment that users can interact with as if the local food environment was real. IVR allows to manipulate and standardize the exposure-dose for different food environment elements, which is impossible to do in real-life. This offers the important combination of controlled conditions and a high level of environmental realism that supports ecological validity (i.e., matching realistic real-world conditions).

In this project, we will develop an IVR food environment tool. This will not only allow us to conduct controlled experiments but also provide us with the opportunity to let policymakers experience and understand novel environments firsthand. By stepping into these simulated environments, policymakers may gain a more concrete understanding of health-enhancing policy scenarios.