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Cities are becoming involved in food governance, with a shift to multi-actor urban food governance taking place. Yet, not all food system actors are equally represented in these governance processes. Facing challenges on participation and social justice, questions arise on how inclusive urban food governance is in practice. This article aims to provide a contribution to this debate by looking at the city of Almere, the Netherlands, in the development of its first urban food strategy (UFS). By assessing the governance network involved in the creation of the UFS this article studies mechanisms of in- and exclusion within this process. Conceptually, the article builds on Manuel Castells’ network theory of power. Methodologically, the article presents a network analysis integrated with qualitative methods. The article finds that the municipality is at the network's centre, trying to balance inclusive versus efficient governance. This highlights the tensions around inclusion in network governance, as a network is only responsible for those included in the network, whereas governments are ultimately responsible for all of their citizens, even if they are not directly included in the governance network. This calls for further reflection on the roles of citizens in urban food governance in a network society.

Cities increasingly envision sustainable future food systems. The realization of such futures is often understood from a planning perspective, leaving the role of entrepreneurship out of scope. The city of Almere in the Netherlands provides a telling example. In the neighborhood Almere Oosterwold, residents must use 50% of their plot for urban agriculture. The municipality formulated an ambition that over time, 10% off all food consumed in Almere must be produced in Oosterwold. In this study, we assume the development of urban agriculture in Oosterwold is an entrepreneurial process, i.e. a creative (re)organization that is ongoing and intervenes in daily life. To understand how this entrepreneurial process helps to realize sustainable food futures, this paper explores what futures for urban agriculture residents of Oosterwold prefer and deem possible and how these futures are organized in the present. We use futuring to explore possible and preferable images of the future, and to backcast those images to the present day. Our findings show residents have different perspectives of the future. Furthermore, they are capable in formulating specific actions to obtain the futures they prefer, but have trouble committing to the actions themselves. We argue this is the result of a temporal dissonance, a myopia where residents have trouble looking beyond their own situation. It shows imagined futures must fit with the lived experiences of citizens in order to be realized. We conclude that urban food futures need planning and entrepreneurship to be realized since they are complementary social processes.

Trust is an important concept in our food systems. Global food systems are witnessing challenges regarding trust. Alternatives to global food systems, generally referred to as alternative food systems, emphasise trust through local and short food initiatives, commonly referred to as alternative food networks. Alternative food networks can benefit from the trust characteristics inherent in digital technology advances such as blockchain. A key characteristic of blockchain is trust. Knowing how blockchain trust characteristics and trust mechanisms can be used to facilitate trust in the supply chains of alternative food networks will be helpful. This paper presents a systematic review of the literature and an understanding of how trust is captured in architectures of blockchain-enabled food supply chains and highlights possible extensions towards facilitating trust in the supply chain of alternative food networks. A distinction is made between the trust characteristics inherent in blockchain and those that apply to alternative food network supply chains. A framework to integrate trust enabled by blockchain into supply chains of alternative food networks is proposed. Areas of future work are recommended, including a need to validate the proposed framework.

Efforts to involve consumers in the transition towards sustainable diets often presume a degree of reflexivity on the concepts of health and sustainability in the minds of consumers ‘doing healthy and sustainable food’. Departing from the hypothesis that people with type 2 diabetes have been confronted with a physical health issue which has spurred some reflexivity around food consumption, we study how this reflexivity subsequently relates to sustainability in food practices, through the process of de- and reroutinization of mundane food practices. We take a practice-theoretical approach to compare and contrast reflexivity and performance in food practices, combining in-depth interviews with observations during food shopping and cooking. Our findings illustrate a diversity in the extent to which food practices are disrupted after being diagnosed with diabetes. We conclude that reflexivity is not necessarily inspired only by being diagnosed with a major health issue, but that there are more factors determining whether or not lifestyle changes actually take place, such as experiencing bodily discomforts and broader societal attention to lifestyle change. In terms of sustainability, positive environmental effects could be identified ‘piggybacking’ onto changes in practices that were performed towards a healthier diet, such as diversifying protein intake and eating less processed foods.

The sustainability transformation of the food system involves imagining a sustainable future whilst functioning within the current unsustainable food system. Some argue there is a difference between the goal-oriented and comfort seeking form in which the near future is engaged, and the reflexive, imaginary way in which the distant future is engaged. This begs the question, how is engagement with near and distant futures balanced, and what does this mean for the overall sustainability transformation of the food system? We studied future engagement in practices of food entrepreneurship in the Dutch province of Flevoland during the disruption caused by the covid-19-induced lockdowns. This disruption posed a challenge and an opportunity to study near and distant future engagement in depth. Through an online survey and offline semi-structured interviewing, we questioned practitioners of sustainable food entrepreneurship during the first and second lockdown, respectively. The findings show near future engagement is mostly associated with immediate change in practices enforced by the covid-19 lockdown, whereas distant future engagement primarily was visible in continuous change in practices as associated with sustainability. However, this does not mean near and distant future were perfectly balanced. Therefore, we argue pre-existing trends with regards to sustainability can be accelerated or obstructed when they meet the immediate effects of disruption. Our paper concludes by stating the need for more research to the interaction of near and distant futures in different contexts and circumstances.

This paper presents the sustainable food entrepreneurship framework (SFEF). It aims to further the understanding of the role of entrepreneurship in the sustainability transition of the food system, especially in the context of food system re-localization. The framework conceptualizes sustainable food entrepreneurship as a cyclical ongoing process of change. We argue this enables transcending the behaviour of entrepreneurs and their enterprises and map the ongoing development they fit into. The framework is based on literature reviews and expert interviews in the Dutch city-region of Almere–Flevoland. Theoretically, it expands on effectuation and bricolage theory, i.e. the ‘resourcefulness perspective’, that centres the socio-material context in the entrepreneurial process. The framework assumes the uncertainty of sustainability incites a cyclical process of change and implores entrepreneurs to reflect on the past before imagining the future. These imagined futures must be fitted to the socio-material context before emerging as artefacts (e.g. products, services or firms), which incites new uncertainties and a new cycle of change. Our framework has implications for policy and science. Its temporal dimension, that accentuates the continuous change entrepreneurship spurs, incites a reevaluation of terms such as ‘success’ and ‘failure’. Moreover, it stresses the importance of intermediary actors in facilitating entrepreneurship.

Wastewater from sanitation contains several scarce resources that can be reused for purposes of energy and food production. Sanitation infrastructures, however, are often overlooked in debates on circular food systems, while the role of sanitation could be pivotal in combatting resource depletion facing agriculture. Transitioning sanitation infrastructures to support circular systems also needs a thorough understanding of the sanitation practices involved, as resource-oriented sanitation systems require a de-routinization in how we make use of toilets and deal with wastewater. Instead, novel sanitation practices are needed for circular developments around sanitation to become successfully part of daily routines and ensure the reuse potential of wastewater. This research paper focuses on understanding how sanitation practices are shaped and embedded and its implications for the re-routinization of novel sanitation practices. A mixed-method research design has been adopted comparing sanitation practices and infrastructures in three distinct neighborhoods within the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region. First, a survey was conducted that enabled the typology of neighborhoods. Second, in-depth interviews in three neighborhoods were conducted to uncover the embeddedness of sanitation practices. Results highlight the importance of re-routinizing practice when linking sanitation to food systems and list five mechanisms that may help normalizing novel sanitation practices.

Consumption of unsafe foods increases morbidity and mortality and is currently an issue, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Policy actions to ensure food safety are dominated by mitigation of biological and chemical hazards through supply-side risk management, lessening the degree to which consumer perspectives of food safety are considered.

Equitable access to healthy food is a critical challenge in urban Asia. Food safety governance promotes modern supermarkets over more traditional markets, but supermarkets are associated with unequal access to food. This study investigates how retail policies driven by food safety impact the diets of the urban poor in Hanoi, Vietnam. We do this by linking food retail infrastructures with the food shopping practices and measured dietary intake of 400 women. Our results reveal sub-optimal dietary diversity and reliance on foods sourced through traditional markets, which do not provide formal food safety guarantees. Modern channels supply formal food safety guarantees, but are mainly frequented for purchasing ultra-processed foods. The paper uncovers a conflicting duality governing food security and suggests that the public responsibility for ensuring access of the poor to nutritious and safe foods requires a more diverse retail policy approach.

The (re)localization of food systems is often presented as an alternative to the ‘globalized’ food system and its presumed unsustainabilities. Studies on sustainability transitions and food systems (re)localization predominantly address the role of Alternative Food Networks whereas the role that conventional supermarket based retail can play has not been as thoroughly studied. Supermarkets, however, take a central position as a main access point for food. Conventional retailing practices are increasingly guided by corporate sustainability principles and therein also increasingly offering locally sourced foods. Supermarkets thus cannot be ignored in discussions on food systems (re)localization and agro-food sustainability transitions. In this paper we assess how food system (re)localization is translated within conventional globalized supermarket-based food retailing in Belgium and the Netherlands taking a practice theory informed approach. First, we discuss the tensions and reinforcing mechanisms between local and conventional food retailing. We demonstrate that to overcome tensions between local and conventional retailing there is a need for increased flexibility (i) in deviating from conventional retailing practices for individual stores; and (ii) within the definition of locality – the definition of ‘local’ determines what local practices look like. Second, we assess how local retailing relates to corporate sustainability. Conventional and local retailing practices are motivated by corporate sustainability strategies. Local retailing is predominantly motivated by social-economic sustainability considerations, whereas the environmental sustainability of local food is implicitly assumed. However, our results suggest that local food retailing may be ineffective and even counterproductive to corporate environmental sustainability objectives. Finally, we address how regional policies pushing food system localization influence local food retailing within supermarkets. Regional policies may drive supermarkets to retail local foods. Nevertheless, in the absence of a centralized strategy, store managers may find themselves stuck between their regional context and their corporate retailing practices.

A growing group of cities feels responsible to feed urban populations sustainably. This has stimulated cities to embrace urban agriculture as an alternative in their food system orientation. However, while urban agriculture in all its diversity has arrived in the urban fabric and at planners’ desks, it largely remains an outsider to urban planning practices of peri-urban zones. How could city’s planning practices transform into practices that include urban agriculture in peri-urban zones? This paper reflects at this question with the analyses of the becoming of planning practices of the Dutch city of Almere that fully integrate urban agriculture in a new urban area: Oosterwold. Using a social practice perspective, our study unpacks the shifting position of agriculture in the planning practices of Almere over a 55-year period. The paper describes the historical reconstruction by examining the meanings, materials and competences in four periods of the urban planning practices. Our analysis reveals that the integration of agriculture into the city’s planning is not just a sign of the times. Agriculture has always been an element of planning from the city’s inception. Nevertheless, it took 55 years to emerge as hybrid urban-rural planning practices that fully integrate agriculture in urbanisation. Furthermore, the case demonstrates how this integration of agriculture stretches the professional domain of urban planning as it required interdisciplinary and unconventional operation as well as leadership to organise.

Inadequate fruit and vegetable intake is a risk factor for malnutrition and non-communicable diseases, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This study aimed to identify the determinants of daily fruit and vegetable consumption among low-income households in urban and peri-urban areas of Hanoi, Vietnam and Ibadan, Nigeria. We used the barrier analysis rapid assessment tool to assess the influence of psychosocial and individual factors and perceived characteristics of the food environment. In Hanoi, determinants were family preferences and habits, home production, and perceived benefits and action efficacy. In Ibadan, consumption was determined by affordability. Gender- and neighbourhood-related differences were found to be influential factors. As results are contextual, we recommend that interventions promoting fruit and vegetable consumption assess local determinants.

Citizen engagement is heralded as essential for food democracy and equality, yet the implementation of inclusive citizen engagement mechanisms in urban food systems governance has lagged behind. This paper aims to further the agenda of citizen engagement in the transformation towards healthy and sustainable urban food systems by offering a conceptual reflection on urban living labs (ULLs) as a methodological platform. Over the past decades, ULLs have become increasingly popular to actively engage citizens in methodological testbeds for innovations within real-world settings. The paper proposes that ULLs as a tool for inclusive citizen engagement can be utilized in two ways: (i) the ULL as the daily life of which citizens are the experts, aimed at uncovering the unreflexive agency of a highly diverse population in co-shaping the food system and (ii) the ULL as a break with daily life aimed at facilitating reflexive agency in (re)shaping food futures. We argue that both ULL approaches have the potential to facilitate inclusive citizen engagement in different ways by strengthening the breadth and the depth of citizen engagement respectively. The paper concludes by proposing a sequential implementation of the two types of ULL, paying attention to spatial configurations and the short-termed nature of ULLs.

SamenvattingOnderzoekers van de Universiteit Utrecht hebben een interessant veldexperiment uitgevoerd: het aanbieden van een gezonde snack op station Utrecht Centraal. Hoewel de reizigers aangaven een groter aanbod van gezonde snacks te appreciëren, vielen de verkopen tegen. Hoe kan dit worden verklaard? Dit artikel biedt een reflectie vanuit de theorie van sociale praktijken. Belangrijke aandachtspunten hierin zijn routinematigheid en gewoonte. Aan de hand van de variabelen locatie, verkooppunt, assortiment en product, wordt ingezoomd op de praktijk – wat zijn de kenmerkende elementen van snacken op het station – en uitgezoomd – hoe is de praktijk van snacken op het station verbonden met andere (dagelijkse) activiteiten van de reizigers? De reflectie demonstreert hoe het experiment, gebaseerd op een causaliteit tussen aanbod en vraag, voor de reizigers een complexe verandering in hun gedragspatronen betrof, met meerdere breuken in bestaande routines: een nieuw product, via een nieuw verkooppunt, op een nieuwe plek en daarmee op een ander moment tijdens het treinreizen. Wanneer voedselconsumptie wordt geïsoleerd van het scala aan vaak (gecombineerde) gedragspatronen waarvan het onderdeel uitmaakt, dan bestaat het risico dat niet alle relevante aspecten worden meegenomen in het ontwerp van een interventie.

Globally, food policies strive to steer citizens in specific directions, however consumption remains largely unruly. This is also the case in Hanoi, Vietnam, where the food safety driven supermarketisation policy is only minimally successful in diverting consumers from traditional markets. Previous research demonstrated that low-income urbanites do not shop at supermarkets and maintain their minimally adequate diet quality through market shopping. Nevertheless, shifts in diets are occurring. The traditional local plant-based diet, which may be considered a ‘planetary health diet’, is shifting towards an increased uptake of animal proteins, ultra-processed foods and sugar sweetened beverages. This begs the question of how dietary shifts are shaping up. This paper aims to uncover emerging dietary trends by understanding the more hidden dynamics of food consumption in the everyday life of low-income urbanites. We use an intergenerational social practice approach to household food security, focussing on food access and utilization in balancing diet quality and food safety priorities within the context of Hanoi's changing food retail environment. Our qualitative methods, consisting of multi-generation household interviews and shopping trips, uncovered: (i) younger women prefer traditional food acquisition and preparation practices for modern convenience; (ii) the changing food environment is mitigated by informal relations and networks that are increasingly online; and (iii) fast-food is entering the home through pester power. Our results demonstrate food security is a dynamic interplay of food environments, food acquisition and preparation preferences, and creative agency, wherein food security takes different forms within changing contexts. We discuss the usefulness of our approach and recommend policy makers consult with populations directly impacted by planned food policies to ensure they are relevant and leverage the creative agency demonstrated by this population.

The need for a shift toward healthier and more sustainable diets is evident and is supported by universalized standards for a “planetary health diet” as recommended in the recent EAT-Lancet report. At the same time, differences exist in tastes, preferences and food practices among diverse ethnic groups, which becomes progressively relevant in light of Europe’s increasingly multi-ethnic cities. There is a growing tension between current sustainable diets standards and how diverse ethnic resident groups relate to it within their ‘culturally appropriate’ foodways, raising questions around inclusion. What are dynamics of inclusiveness in migrant food practices? And what does this mean towards the transition to healthy and sustainable food? We study this question among Syrian migrants with different lengths of stay in the Netherlands. Our theoretical framework is based on practice theories, which emphasize the importance of socio-material context and of bodily routines and competences. We use qualitative methods, combining in-depth semi-structured life-history interviews with participant observation. Our findings indicate that inclusiveness takes different forms as migrants’ food practices and the food environment change. Regarding health and sustainability in food practices, understandings and competences around particularly fresh food change over time among both short- and long-term migrants, replacing making things from scratch with seasonal products with buying more processed products and out-of-season vegetables and fruits. We conclude that the performances of food practices and their configurations in food environments and lifestyles are dynamic and cannot unequivocally be interpreted as in- or exclusive, but that a more nuanced understanding is required.

International audience; Multiple recent global nutrition initiatives have recommended actions to transform food systems to improve food environments and food choice. This study aimed to identify actions recommended by these initiatives and understand their similarities and differences. Twelve global nutrition initiatives were reviewed, collectively spanning 13 action themes and accompanying strategies. Action themes were analyzed according to primary focus on either food environments and their food system drivers or food choice. Representation of the 13 actions varied across initiatives. Some actions overlapped; others were infrequently represented. Strategies targeting food environments and their food system drivers were more frequently recommended than strategies targeting food choice for 11 of the 13 action themes. Although these global initiatives share a mission to improve nutrition through food systems and food environments, less attention has been allocated to individual food choice and sustainability.

Nutrition insecurity among urban poor in modernizing Asian metropolises is a critical issue. It is well recognized that in urban Asia the poor are food insecure. Across Asia the food retail environment is transforming rapidly, in which supermarkets increasingly replace traditional food vending, like markets and street vendors that the urban poor depend upon. The question is, how these transformations impact the diets of the urban poor? What drives their food choice? What are their daily shopping practices and how does that affect their dietary intake? To investigate this, we developed a cross-disciplinary nutrition and social practices study with a sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed-method design. Building on empirical evidence from Hanoi, Vietnam, the study links (i) food choice and measured dietary intake, with (ii) food retail environment, through (iii) food shopping practices and preferences of 400 women of reproductive age within the context of (iv) their transformative urban lifestyles. Methods included are a retail census with GPS coordinates to map the food retail environment, a household survey, a 24-h diet recall, multi-generation household interviews and shopping trips. We demonstrate that integrated sociological and nutritional perspectives are productive in rapidly generating evidence to comprehend the complex trade-offs between food safety and nutrition in everyday food consumption practices. We describe and reflect on our theoretical mix of dietary intake and social practices research, and our holistic mixed method approach which besides combining quantitative and qualitative methods, also voices the urban poor first hand.

The growing appetite of cities is one of the greatest future challenges. There is no set menu for meeting this appetite, but a trend is observed in which city authorities focus on region-based food provision. Regionalism is motivated by the importance of increased self-reliance. Besides, regional food systems, are associated with more sustainable production and reduced carbon footprints, the reconnection of consumers with production, and the increased uptake of whole foods in urban diets. However, the question remains to what extend region based food systems may become self-reliant? How may they contribute to improved sustainability and healthy lifestyles? With the Dutch city of Almere as a case in point this paper provides a food flow data-based analysis of the opportunities and limitations of regional based food system approaches. The paper sets-off with defining the concepts of sustainable self-reliance and regionalism. Next, it describes the methodology of measuring and mapping the actual food flows. We combined secondary, publicly available, with primary quantitative and qualitative datasets, involving regional businesses, urban policymakers, and residents. Our study uncovers the coinciding disconnect and interconnectedness of local, regional and global food systems. The regional scale offers opportunities for tackling many food related challenges, however, sustainable urban food security demands connections beyond the regional sphere and beyond the food domain. Our research provides an evidence base for policymakers striving to shape a sustainable city-region food system. Although food production and food retail are not in the hands of local and regional policy-makers, their decisions on issues such as logistics, business licensing, and subsidies directly impact urban food provision. To assess the effects of the policy options available at the local and regional level, a solid evidence base is essential. This paper advances the development of evidence-based methodologies to monitor and inform food system policies.

Theory and practice show that second-tier cities can play an important role in linking the urban and the rural. Second-tier cities are the middle ground of the urban system. The smaller spatial scale of second-tier cities, and their often-stronger connections with the rural hinterland can potentially enable a more sustainable food system. In this paper, we argue that the extent to which the benefits ascribed to the re-localisation of food can be achieved greatly depends on the contextual specifics of the second-tier city and the region in which it is embedded. Furthermore, we argue that to reach resilient, healthy and environmentally friendly city region food systems, three contextual elements need to be considered in their mutual coherence: (1) the historical development of the second-tier city and the region, (2) the proximity of food production to the second-tier city, (3) the scale and reach of the city region&rsquo, s food system. We use the case-study of the Dutch city Almere to show how (a controlled) growth of cities can be combined with maintaining (or even increasing) the strength of adjacent rural areas. Such cities can play a role in creating Garden Regions: regions that foster healthy, sustainable and resilient food systems and that do not just connect urban and rural regions, but also connect city region food systems to national and global markets.

Food safety is a widely recognized concern in Vietnam. Public officials, companies and consumers find different ways to address risks of pesticide residues and bacterial contamination related to the use of fresh vegetables in daily diets. The response of the government to these food safety risks includes the modernization and regulation of the food retail system. However, reforms that aim to offer a controlled and predictable provision of fresh vegetables through supermarkets seem to contrast with the daily consumer practices in a dynamic city as Hanoi; over 95% of vegetables is still being purchased at long-established open-air markets, importantly the informal and unhygienic street markets. Using a practices theory approach, this paper aims to explain this persistence of street-market shopping for vegetables. Detailed accounts of consumer practices, case studies at different retailing sites and daily logbooks of consumers demonstrate that the way consumers cope with food safety risks is largely shaped by the temporal and spatial constraints of their daily shopping practices. We identified how vegetable shopping is either enjoyed as social interaction within the local community or is regarded a time-consuming activity that conflicts with other activities in everyday life. Our findings indicate how these constraints constitute a reinforcing mechanism for the persistence of uncontrolled and unhygienic street markets. To make policy responses to food safety risks both more realistic and effective, it is essential to connect to and accommodate the daily realities of consumers managing time and space in a modernizing city rather than to impose an ideal, typical market exclusively driven by the wish to control food safety risks.

Concerns about food safety influence the way in which Vietnamese consumers confront the question of where, how and from whom they buy their fresh vegetables. In this paper we analyze in what manner and to what extent existing shopping practices inhibit the adoption of modern retail based food safety strategies. Using a social practices theory based approach, we analyze in detail the sales practices of sellers and the purchasing practices of consumers in a Vietnamese provincial city. This study reveals how both sellers and buyers in wet-markets, Asian style fresh food markets, apply different sets of skills and knowledge, based on locality, personal contacts and private judgment, to match supply and demand in the context of food safety threats. Within the everyday practice of shopping for vegetables, trust is shown to be continuously reproduced along pre-given lines. Consumers do not easily look outside or move beyond their existing routines even when food safety concerns would urge them to do so. From these findings we conclude that in situations where wet-markets serve as the dominant channel for distributing and purchasing fresh food, the efficacy of government and retail induced food safety strategies depends on their articulation within existing food purchasing routines of Vietnamese consumers.

This paper offers a historical analysis of contemporary practices of shopping for vegetables in the highly dynamic context of urban Hanoi during the period from 1975 to 2014. Focusing on everyday shopping practices from a food safety perspective, we assess the extent to which the policy-enforced process of supermarketization has proven to be an engine of change in daily vegetable purchasing while improving food safety. In depicting transitions in shopping practices, we combine a social practices approach with historical analysis. Providing a historical analysis of a broad and complex spectrum of everyday practices of purchasing fresh vegetables, we identify the key drivers of change. We discuss different modalities of shopping and demonstrate that no single retail modernization format can be said to exist. Rather than contrasting an idealized supermarket model with the traditional modalities of food shopping, we offer a varied, more diverse set of shopping practices that displays different strategies for coping with food safety issues. When discussed from a historical perspective, food practices are shown to be highly dynamic, being constantly reinvented and reconfigured by consumers who use their established skills, routines, and social networks to sometimes resist top-down enforced supermarketization while developing the coping strategies that best suit their local circumstances.

Access to safe and healthy food is a crucial element of food security. In Vietnam the safety of daily vegetables is of great concern to both consumers and policymakers. To mitigate food safety risks, the Vietnamese government enforces rules and regulations and relies strongly on a single approach for organizing food provision; being modernizing retail by replacing wet markets with supermarkets. In general, reorganizing food provision in this way is increasingly considered to be a guarantee for food safety, especially in urban settings with growing populations. To assess the effectiveness of this induced retail modernization of the fresh vegetables market in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi, this paper examines for whom and under which conditions does this approach deliver the desired outcomes. The survey data and interviews show that ongoing retail modernization in Hanoi reaches only a minor segment of the population and drives a large group of shoppers into informal vending structures. On the basis of five case studies, this paper demonstrates how similar supermarket interventions can yield contrasting outcomes when they do not accommodate for differences in shopper population and do not adapt to variations in the urban conditions. To reduce exposure to unsafe food, particularly for poorer segments of the population, we conclude that developing a flexible portfolio of retail modernization pathways and adopting a reflexive policy approach provide better impact and leverage, as opposed to the current trend of promoting supermarkets as a single, ideal-type form of food shopping.