Students agree healthy eating is a virtual cert!

The Ballinasloe teenagers stepped inside a virtual supermarket and came away with a clear message – healthy food needs to cost less.

The students from Clonfert College took part in a Safefood workshop exploring how prices, promotions, advertising and social media influence the food choices young people make.

Ballinasloe was one of just ten locations selected nationally for the initiative, which uses virtual reality (VR) headsets to simulate a supermarket shopping trip.

At the end of the workshop, students voted on the changes they believed would make it easier for young people to eat healthily.

Their top three proposals were healthier ingredients in food products, cheaper healthy food through subsidies and incentives, and healthy options in every school.

“We came to the conclusion that we should reduce the prices of healthy food,” said student Luke Doherty.

“We’d like to see EU subsidies on healthy food.”

For fellow student Lorna Jennings, the cost of shopping on a limited budget was a particular concern.

“We used VR headsets to look at how difficult it was to shop within our budget because of prices,” she explained.

“I think the government needs to use their money more wisely to give money to schools for healthy food.”

Lydia Newton was impressed by the virtual reality experience.

“I found the VR very realistic, you actually felt like you were in that world,” she said.

Hashir Muhammad said the workshop had helped students understand the factors influencing their food choices and how to make healthier decisions.

The specially designed VR supermarket experience was developed in collaboration with Safefood by Dublin City University Institute of Business and Society, led by Professor Tim Hubbard.

Teenagers taking part explored a VR supermarket to experience features such as pricing, promotions and product placement – allowing researchers to examine how these features shape what teenagers notice and how they respond.

Professor Hubbard said virtual reality offered ‘a unique opportunity to place young people inside a realistic food environment’, allowing researchers to examine what catches their attention and how they respond to the choices and influences around them.

"This initiative with Safefood is an exciting and new opportunity to explore the food environment using immersive technology, so that we can better understand how factors within the retail environment shape what people notice, remember and how they respond,” he said.

Dr Aileen McGloin, Safefood’s Lead for Nutrition, said the workshops “give teenagers a chance to share their perspectives”.”

"The food choices of teenagers are shaped not only by what is available, but by friends, family, school, money, time and the digital world around them,” she said.

"Using a VR experience will help us to understand what it feels like to make food choices within the environments teenagers move through every day.”

Stuart Hamilton, Head of Libraries Development at the Local Government Management Agency which supports public libraries in the Republic of Ireland, said they were delighted to support Safefood's ‘Appetite for Change’ campaign and to host this important exhibition in libraries across Ireland.

"Public libraries are trusted, welcoming spaces that support the health and wellbeing of our communities and encourage people of all ages to engage with the issues that affect their lives,” he said.

"By combining community engagement, innovative technology and direct involvement from teenagers, the Appetite for Change campaign is creating new opportunities for people to explore how the food environment influences everyday choices and to share their perspectives.

" Libraries bring people together, encourage participation in public conversations and provide spaces where learning, discussion and discovery can flourish,” he added.

Safefood hopes the teenagers’ views will help inform future public health policy.