Cyber Food Swamps: Investigating the Impacts of Online-to-Offline Food Delivery Platforms on Healthy Food Choices

Online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platforms have substantially enriched the food choices of urban residents by allowing them to conveniently access farther food outlets. However, concerns about the healthiness of delivered food persist, especially because the impact of O2O food delivery platforms on users' healthy food choices remains unclear. This study leverages large-scale empirical data from a leading O2O delivery platform to comprehensively analyze online food choice behaviors and how they are influenced by the online exposure to fast food restaurants, i.e., online food environment. Our analyses reveal significant discrepancy in food preferences across demographic groups and city sizes, where male, low-income, and younger users and those located in larger cities more likely to order fast food via O2O platforms. Besides, we also perform a comparative analysis on the food exposure differences in online and offline environments, confirming that the extended service ranges of O2O platforms can create larger "cyber food swamps". Furthermore, regression analysis highlights that a higher ratio of fast food orders is associated with "cyber food swamps", areas characterized by a higher share of accessible fast food restaurants. A 10% increase in this share raises the probability of ordering fast food by 22.0%. Moreover, a quasi-natural experiment substantiates the long-term causal effect of online food environment changes on healthy food choices. Our findings underscore the need for O2O food delivery platforms to address the health implications of online food choice exposure, thereby informing efforts by various stakeholders to improve residents' dietary health.