The Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health: Next Generation (RE-FRESH: Next Generation) is working to improve diet and health at a population level by developing and translating the evidence needed to improve the retail food environments where people buy their food and drinks.
RE-FRESH: Next Generation is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) (2024-2029) and builds upon research conducted by the NHMRC-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health (RE-FRESH, 2018-2023) – the first global centre dedicated to the advancement of healthy food retail research and practice.
Our research team are based in Australia and internationally, and include experts in nutrition, food retail, health economics, public health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, health policy, epidemiology, health law, biostatistics, equity, co-creation, implementation science and knowledge translation.
Institutions represented in RE-FRESH: Next Generation include Deakin University, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of Queensland, Monash University, The University of Auckland (New Zealand), Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands), The University of Western Australia, The University of Sydney, Food for Health Alliance (formerly the Obesity Policy Coalition) and The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.
Our research includes partnerships with government and non-government organisations, community organisations and food retailers in Australia and overseas.
Why we exist
Welcome to RE-FRESH: Next Generation!
Retail food environments strongly influence what foods and beverages we buy and in turn influence what we eat and our overall health. Globally, and in Australia, retail food environments such as supermarkets, convenience stores, cafes, vending machines and cafeterias in hospitals and recreation centres have the potential to actively promote good health and well-being.
However many retail food environments are strongly biased towards the promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks, making healthier choices difficult. Our research has shown that 80% of display space at checkout and end-of-aisle displays in Australian supermarkets are devoted to unhealthy food1 and unhealthy food is price-discounted twice as often as healthy food — and the discounts are twice as big2.
Retail food environments that prioritise the availability and affordability of unhealthy food and drinks and heavily market these foods over healthier foods lead to energy-dense-nutrient poor diets which contribute to poor health.
The Australian government has recently recognised the importance of healthy retail food environments through initiatives such as the Australian National Obesity Strategy (2022-2032) and the National Preventive Health Strategy (2021-2030). This highlights a key opportunity for taking action to create healthier food environments. Consequently, RE-FRESH: Next Generation will develop and translate the evidence required to achieve healthy retail food environments at scale, with research designed to impact retail food environments via multiple mechanisms including government policy, holding retail stakeholders to account and supporting direction action by retailers.
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