This ARC Discovery Project aims to generate new knowledge on how to affect the development and implementation of multisectoral public policy to reduce the supply and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF).

The aim of this project is to build knowledge regarding how public policies contribute to the distribution of socioeconomic advantage and the implications for health equity. We are identifying mechanisms through which public policies may shape the distribution of material and non-materials resources (e.g., rules of access and accumulation) and a relevant and impactful set of indicators that can be used to measure the distribution of those material and non-material resources within countries. We will conduct qualitative analysis (e.g.

This work will employ the INFORMAS monitoring framework. The framework includes 12 modules that represent aspects of the food environment. Each module consists of an established set of standardized methods for data collection and analysis that can be used to characterize a particular policy domain. When implemented comprehensively, the INFORMAS framework is an accountability framework to ensure that major stakeholders (namely, governments and the food industry) have the policies and supports in place to create actual, sustained change in the food environment.

As regional trade agreements in the Asia and Pacific have expanded into domestic regulatory space, their potential impacts on health have intensified. Recent scholarship has produced robust evidence of the pathways by which trade can impact positively and negatively on health. What remains underexplored is the governance of trade policymaking which enables or constrains meaningful participation of health experts and civil society.