Schools surrounded by unhealthy food options; Municipalities want to step in

A study by Amsterdam UMC across ten cities showed that nearly 94 percent of secondary and vocational schools are surrounded by an abundance of unhealthy food options. Not a single school surveyed was located in a healthy environment. A group of 14 municipalities is calling for more say in which new businesses can open in a given area, RTL Nieuws reports.

Researchers from Amsterdam UMC analyzed the food offer in Almere, Amsterdam, Breda, Den Bosch, Groningen, Leiden, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague, and Tilburg. They found that unhealthy options predominate in all ten cities. Moreover, the situation has deteriorated in 77 percent of neighborhoods compared to ten years ago.

The trend is most pronounced around schools. Food options in the immediate vicinity of 93.6 percent of secondary and vocational schools are “highly unhealthy.” And the remaining 6.4 percent are “fairly unhealthy.” Not a single school environment was categorized as “healthy.”

The researchers looked at 31 types of food outlets, including snackbars, fast-food chains, grill rooms, supermarkets, ice cream parlors, gas stations, and bakeries. They analyzed over 83,000 products, assessing what proportion of a business’s offerings fell within or outside the Dutch dietary guidelines, known as the Schijf van Vijf.

According to the Netherlands Nutrition Center, an abundance of unhealthy options makes it more difficult to make healthy choices. "Because our brains are drawn to fat, sugar, and salt, these products are harder to resist," behavioral expert Liesbeth Velema told RTL Nieuws. "In an environment dominated by unhealthy options, making a healthy choice becomes significantly harder—especially for young people."

Aldermen from 14 municipalities are calling on the national government to give them more powers to deter such businesses from opening around schools. Currently, municipalities can only block a business for things like nuisance, traffic, or odor, but not based on a neighborhood already having a high concentration of businesses selling primarily unhealthy food.

The government promised to expand municipalities’ power in this way in 2022, but that never materialized. The government is now working on a broader Food Act, which will enable municipalities to refuse new vendors of unhealthy food. The bill has not been submitted to Parliament yet.