The Development Impacts of COVID-19 at Home and Abroad: Politics and Implications of Government Action.

What is COVID-19's impact on development? What lessons can be drawn from development studies regarding the effects of and recovery from COVID-19? The unprecedented scale and scope of government interventions carry implications at all levels: global, national, and local. In this introduction, our team of Editors underline the importance of systematic substantive study to further knowledge acquisition, and rigorous global-, national-, or context-specific evaluation to inform evidence-based policymaking. The 12 articles summarised here capture these values and sense of "high quality".

A research vision for food systems in the 2020s: Defying the status quo.

•Research and science should not only inform food and environmental policy but should be adopted and mainstreamed into actions at all levels.•Food systems are faced with grander and interconnected challenges and constraints that bring about new research questions.•Research has a vital role in charting a positive and sustainable direction for global food security, nutrition, and health.

Are Low-Income Consumers Willing to Pay for Fortification of a Commercially Produced Yogurt in Bangladesh.

Background: There is an active debate over the potential for market-based strategies to address micronutrient deficiencies in low- and middle-income countries. However, there are questions over the viability of market-based strategies, reflecting limited evidence on the value that low-income households attach to the nutritional attributes of processed foods.

Objective: The objective of this article is to investigate the willingness to pay of primary food purchasers in low-income households in rural Bangladesh for Shokti+, a nutritionally fortified yogurt produced and distributed by Grameen Danone Foods Limited.

Restaurant menu labelling: Is it worth adding sodium to the label?

Objective: Several provincial and federal bills have recommended various forms of menu labelling that would require information beyond just calories; however, the additional benefit of including sodium information is unknown. The objective of this study was to determine whether sodium information on menus helps consumers make lower-sodium choices and to understand what other factors influence the effect of menu labelling on consumers' meal choices.

Methods: A total of 3,080 Canadian consumers completed an online survey that included a repeated measures experiment in which consumers were asked to select what they would typically order from four mock-restaurant menus.

Innovation in regulation of rapidly changing health markets.

The rapid evolution and spread of health markets across low and middle-income countries (LMICs) has contributed to a significant increase in the availability of health-related goods and services around the world. The support institutions needed to regulate these markets have lagged behind, with regulatory systems that are weak and under-resourced. This paper explores the key issues associated with regulation of health markets in LMICs, and the different goals of regulation, namely quality and safety of care, value for money, social agreement over fair access and financing, and accountability.

Assessment of consumers’ level of engagement in following recommendations for lowering sodium intake.

Population-wide sodium reduction strategies encourage consumer participation in lowering dietary sodium. This study aims to measure and rank consumers’ level of engagement in following 23 recommendations to reduce dietary sodium and to compare variation in level of consumers’ engagement by sociodemographic sub-groups. The study included 869 randomly selected participants of an online food panel survey from Ontario during November and December 2010.

Canadians' perceptions of food, diet, and health--a national survey.

Background: Poor nutrition is harmful to one's health as it can lead to overweight and obesity and a number of chronic diseases. Understanding consumer perceptions toward diet and nutrition is critical to advancing nutrition-related population health interventions to address such issues. The purpose of this paper was to examine Canadians' perceived health and diet status, compared to their actual health status, and general concern about their own diet and beliefs about health.

Consumer attitudes and understanding of low-sodium claims on food: an analysis of healthy and hypertensive individuals.

Background: Sodium-related claims on food labels should facilitate lower-sodium food choices; however, consumer attitudes and understanding of such claims are unknown.

Objectives: We evaluated consumer attitudes and understanding of different types of sodium claims and the effect of having hypertension on responses to such claims.

Design: Canadian consumers (n = 506), with and without hypertension, completed an online survey that contained a randomized mock-package experiment, which tested 4 packages that differed only by the claims they carried as follows: 3 sodium claims (disease risk reduction, function, and nutrient-content claims) and a tastes-great claim (control).

Results of a national survey examining Canadians' concern, actions, barriers, and support for dietary sodium reduction interventions.

Population-wide dietary sodium reduction is considered a priority intervention to address sodium-related chronic diseases. In 2010, the Canadian government adopted a sodium reduction strategy to lower sodium intakes of Canadians; however, there has been a lack of coordinated action in its implementation. Our objective was to evaluate Canadians' concern, actions, reported barriers, and support for government-led policy interventions aimed at lowering sodium intakes.

Understanding the complexities of private standards in global agri-food chains as they impact developing countries.

The increasing prevalence of private standards governing food safety, food quality and environmental and social impacts of agri-food systems has raised concerns about the effects on developing countries, as well as the governance of agri-food value chains more broadly. It is argued that current debates have been 'clouded' by a failure to recognise the diversity of private standards in terms of their institutional form, who develops and adopts these standards and why. In particular, there is a need to appreciate the close inter-relationships between public regulations and private standards and the continuing ways in which private standards evolve.

Difficulty of healthy eating: a Rasch model approach.

This study aims to measure the difficulty of healthy eating as a single latent construct and, within that, assess which dietary guidelines consumers find more or less difficult to comply with using the Rasch model approach. Participants self-reported their compliance with 12 health-promoting dietary recommendations related to cooking methods and consumption of specific food items. Data were drawn from a survey elicited using a longitudinal consumer panel established in the City of Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 2008.

Understanding the propensity of consumers to comply with dietary guidelines directed at heart health.

The aim of this paper is to explore the difficulty faced by consumers in complying with health-related dietary guidelines, focusing on those guidelines that consumers find it more/less difficult to meet and the factors driving the ability to make associated dietary changes. Participants reported self-assessed compliance with 12 dietary recommendations predominantly directed at reducing the risk of heart disease. The difficulty of complying with each of the dietary guidelines was measured using a Rasch model, while the determinants of ability to comply with the dietary recommendations as a whole were identified using regression analysis.

A multifactorial risk prioritization framework for foodborne pathogens.

We develop a prioritization framework for foodborne risks that considers public health impact as well as three other factors (market impact, consumer risk acceptance and perception, and social sensitivity). Canadian case studies are presented for six pathogen-food combinations: Campylobacter spp. in chicken; Salmonella spp.

Consumer valuation of functional foods and nutraceuticals in Canada. A conjoint study using probiotics.

This paper applied conjoint analysis to elicit consumer preferences over attributes of functional foods and nutraceuticals using probiotics as the functional compound of interest. Data were gathered through a mall intercept survey in Guelph, Canada. Cluster analysis and chi-square tests were used to examine the relationship between respondents' characteristics and preferences for product variants.

Understanding consumer attitudes toward food technologies in Canada.

This article reports a study on consumer attitudes to 21 food and nonfood technologies in Canada. The study involves repertory grid interviews with 36 food consumers, the data from which are analyzed using generalized Procrustes analysis. Results highlight the role of perceived risk and perceived benefit in determining the acceptability of the technologies, with individual technologies lying along a continuum between the two.

Who consumes functional foods and nutraceuticals in Canada? Results of cluster analysis of the 2006 survey of Canadians' demand for food products supporting health and wellness.

This research seeks to identify consumer segments related to consumption of functional food and nutraceutical products in Canada. The segments are differentiated by consumer receptivity to functional foods and nutraceuticals. In turn, receptivity is tied to attitudes, motivations and knowledge related to food/diet and connections with health.

Population distribution and burden of acute gastrointestinal illness in British Columbia, Canada.

Background: In developed countries, gastrointestinal illness (GI) is typically mild and self-limiting, however, it has considerable economic impact due to high morbidity.

Methods: The magnitude and distribution of acute GI in British Columbia (BC), Canada was evaluated via a cross-sectional telephone survey of 4,612 randomly selected residents, conducted from June 2002 to June 2003. Respondents were asked if they had experienced vomiting or diarrhoea in the 28 days prior to the interview.

Public perceptions of drinking water: a postal survey of residents with private water supplies.

Background: In Canada, the legal responsibility for the condition of private water supplies, including private wells and cisterns, rests with their owners. However, there are reports that Canadians test these water supplies intermittently and that treatment of such water is uncommon. An estimated 45% of all waterborne outbreaks in Canada involve non-municipal systems.

Public perception of drinking water from private water supplies: focus group analyses.

Background: Over four million Canadians receive their drinking water from private water supplies, and numerous studies report that these supplies often exceed the minimal acceptable standards for contamination. Canadians in rural areas test their water intermittently, if at all, and treatment of water from private supplies is not common. Understanding the perceptions of drinking water among residents served by private systems will enable public health professionals to better target education and outreach activities, and to address the needs and concerns of residents in their jurisdictions.