Unhealthy food outlets dominate Dutch cities, say researchers

The food in 10 major Dutch cities has become less healthy over the past decade, according to new research by Amsterdam UMC.

Health executives from the 10 cities have written to health minister Sophie Hermans urging her to speed up a promised food law that would let councils limit unhealthy outlets, Het Parool reported on Tuesday.

The researchers scored 31 types of food outlet, from greengrocers to fast-food chains. The scores combined expert ratings with checks of more than 83,000 products against the “Wheel of Five” (Schijf van Vijf), the official Dutch healthy eating guidelines.

Each neighbourhood was then given a score from -500 (extremely unhealthy) to +500 (extremely healthy), based on the type, number and proximity of nearby outlets.

All 10 cities scored negative in both 2014 and 2024, ranging from -252 in Groningen to -327 in Leiden. Amsterdam fell from -287 to -301. Across the cities, 77% of neighbourhoods scored lower in 2024 than 10 years earlier.

In Amsterdam, 96% of food outlets fall into categories the researchers rate as unhealthy. Some 87 of the city’s 90 secondary schools and vocational colleges are in what the report calls a “very unhealthy” food environment.

The councils say they currently lack a clear legal basis to refuse outlets selling unhealthy food.

“That more than nine in 10 secondary schools and vocational colleges are in an unhealthy food environment means young people are surrounded every day by an offer that makes choosing healthily harder,” Amsterdam health executive Alexander Scholtes told Het Parool. “I am not willing to resign myself to that.”