Who we are

RE-FRESH was established in 2019 as a joint venture of Deakin University, Monash University, The George Institute for Global Health, The University of Queensland, Obesity Policy Coalition, The University of Auckland, YMCA, and Dalhousie University (Canada).

RE-FRESH aims to transform the retail food environments in which people buy their food and beverages to improve diet and health at a population level. The centre’s international research team are experts in their fields, including epidemiology, health economics, food environments, nutrition and dietetics, public health, advocacy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, obesity and health policy analysis, artificial intelligence, food retail, biostatistics, health equity and consumer behaviours.

RE-FRESH is focused on high quality cross-disciplinary research and collaboration to build the evidence, methods and tools needed to accelerate the uptake of proven healthy food retail initiatives in remote, regional and urban settings in Australia, and internationally. To achieve this we are building the business case for healthy retail through our partnerships with government and non-government organisations, community organisations and food retailers.

We consider consumer needs, retailer viability and population health outcomes. Our work both examines and contributes to the policy context for improving population nutrition — from policy set by national and state governments to those introduced by local community organisations and food retailers. We are committed to equity, social responsibility and sustainability, working to ensure that healthy diets are affordable for all people, while increasing the accountability of corporations in creating healthy food environments.