Identifying attributes of food literacy: a scoping review

What is it about?

Food literacy may have an import influence on eating patterns. There's a need to develop a tool to measure the impact of food literacy in public health. To help inform this tool, this study identified 15 key attributes of food literacy attributes falling into 5 interrelated categories, which include: Food and Nutrition Knowledge; Food Skills; Self-Efficacy and Confidence; Ecologic ( or external factors, e.g., socio-cultural influences, socio-economic status); and Food Decisions with the single attribute of dietary behavior. The attributes of food literacy are interrelated, for example, without self-efficacy and confidence and access to resources for buying food, and supplies to prepare food, neither knowledge nor ability is relevant.

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Why is it important?

A shift is required in public health program planning and evaluation to implementing a broader food literacy framework that shows an appreciation for the complex nature of factors influencing dietary behaviors. Findings will be used to develop and test a tool to measure food literacy in public health, which currently does not exist.

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