Urban food deserts, areas characterized by limited access to affordable and nutritious food, remain a significant public health challenge in many global cities. A groundbreaking study recently published in the open-access journal PLOS Complex Systems sheds new light on the reality of these food deserts across London, revealing not only their geographic clustering but also the intricate sociodemographic underpinnings that drive them. Led by Tayla Broadbridge of the University of Nottingham, UK, this research utilized an innovative approach—analyzing actual grocery purchase data rather than relying solely on supermarket locations—to map out where London’s food deserts truly lie.
Traditionally, food deserts have been identified through models focusing on store locations, implicitly assuming that physical proximity equates to access. However, the Nottingham team challenged this notion by employing an extensive dataset comprising 420 million food items purchased in 2015 by over 1.6 million Tesco Clubcard holders across 411 Tesco supermarkets in London. This data was linked, while maintaining anonymity, to the purchasers’ residential areas, allowing the researchers to assess not just potential access but actual consumer behavior and nutritional choices at a granular level.
The study unveiled large clusters of food deserts predominantly in East London boroughs such as Newham, Redbridge, and Barking and Dagenham, as well as in parts of West London like Ealing and Brent. These areas consistently showed purchasing patterns skewed towards high-sugar, high-carbohydrate, and heavily processed foods, coupled with lower purchases of fresh, high-fiber, and protein-rich items. Conversely, inner northwest London boroughs recorded more nutritious purchase patterns, highlighting stark nutritional inequalities across the city’s landscape.
Moving beyond mere geographic analysis, the researchers integrated sociodemographic data to decode drivers behind these nutritional disparities. By constructing a sophisticated statistical model, they identified that income and car ownership—typically associated with better food access—had highly region-specific and sometimes counterintuitive associations with food purchasing habits. For example, in East and West London, higher incomes correlated with poorer nutritional choices, whereas in the inner west, they aligned with healthier purchases.
Car ownership, often regarded as a symbol of mobility and thus better access to diverse food options, also presented complex relationships. The study found that car ownership corresponded to healthier food buying in a limited northwestern district but paradoxically linked to nutrient-deficient purchases in eastern, western, and parts of northwestern London. These findings underscore the necessity of localized insights when designing interventions, cautioning against one-size-fits-all assumptions in tackling food deserts.
Ethnic composition emerged as another critical factor influencing dietary patterns. Areas with higher proportions of Black, Asian, and minority ethnic communities were more likely to exhibit nutrient-poor purchasing behaviors in the west, northeast, and inner east parts of London. This relationship suggests that cultural, economic, and systemic barriers to healthy food access may intersect, amplifying nutritional inequalities in these communities.
The implications of these findings extend deeply into public health. Poor dietary choices underpin escalating rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases—chronic conditions that severely burden healthcare systems. By pinpointing precise areas where populations are disproportionately at risk due to poor nutrition, policymakers can now tailor interventions with advanced targeting that respects the heterogeneous nature of food access across metropolitan spaces.
This research exemplifies the power of integrating “big data” from commercial sources with geospatial and sociodemographic analytics to reveal complex urban health challenges. It moves beyond theoretical potential access maps to present a reality-based narrative, indicating where Londoners’ diets are genuinely deficient rather than only potentially limited by geographic proximity to fresh food outlets. Such data-driven revelations enable more informed and effective public health strategies.
The methodological rigor of the study lies in its capacity to anonymize user data while maintaining detailed residential linkage, enabling robust evaluation of purchasing trends without compromising privacy. This approach sets a precedent for future investigations seeking to harness large-scale consumer datasets to tackle urban health and social issues with precision and ethical grounding.
Lead author Tayla Broadbridge emphasized the transformative potential of this methodology, stating, “Our findings demonstrate the importance of purchase data analysis to accurately identify food deserts and their multifaceted drivers. This allows for local public health strategies that are context-sensitive and better attuned to the lived realities of urban residents.” This echoes a growing recognition among urban planners and health experts that metrics rooted strictly in physical infrastructure may insufficiently capture the lived experiences of those facing food insecurity.
The study’s nuanced insights push for a rethinking of interventions addressing food deserts, advocating for policies that combine infrastructure improvements with cultural, economic, and educational supports customized across neighborhoods that vary widely in socioeconomic makeup. Such tailored approaches promise to enhance nutritional outcomes more effectively than blanket measures, which risk missing or exacerbating disparities.
The work also sets an important precedent for other global cities grappling with food inequities. The integration of retail purchase datasets, which are increasingly accessible through loyalty programs and large grocery chains worldwide, represents a powerful tool for urban health diagnostics. As cities continue to urbanize and diversify, such data-driven frameworks will be critical to crafting equitable and sustainable food systems.
In conclusion, this innovative study reshapes our understanding of food deserts in London by moving beyond simplistic spatial analyses to a complex, data-rich portrayal of dietary behaviors tied to social, economic, and demographic factors. It highlights the urgent need for local context-aware interventions that recognize the multifaceted realities of access to nutritious food. As food insecurity remains a pressing urban health challenge, these insights offer a beacon for precision public health strategies aimed at nourishing healthier communities.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Food purchase data reveals the locations of London’s ‘food deserts’
News Publication Date: November 6, 2025
Web References: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcsy.0000072
References: Broadbridge TP, Green JEF, Preston SP, Fadai NT, Maclean J (2025) Food purchase data reveals the locations of London’s ‘food deserts’. PLOS Complex Syst 2(11): e0000072.
Image Credits: Arthur Franklin, Unsplash (CC0)
Keywords: food deserts, London, nutrition, socioeconomic factors, grocery purchase data, public health, diet disparities, urban health, food insecurity, data analytics
