Dr Sarah Muir

Sarah’s work uses a systems approach to evaluate food policies aimed at regulating food environments to tackle childhood obesity. Her recent pre-implementation evaluation of the new world-leading Food (Placement and Promotion) regulations identified it as a good first step in reducing impulse purchases but also highlighted potential unintended consequences related to health inequalities, public health impact, commercial implementation and local enforcement. She has designed, and will lead, a number of deep-dive case studies across six local authorities in the UK to evaluate local food environments and co-design, with stakeholders across the food system, effective strategies that are effective for all. Her work focuses on a wide range of food environments including supermarkets, convenience stores, discount variety stores and online retail environments to identify levers for change across a range of sectors to shape novel policy recommendations that have the potential to improve dietary health for all and reduce inequalities.