Evaluation of Community Food Markets in Glasgow, Scotland.

Community Food Markets as a Driver for Equitable, Sustainable Food Systems in Glasgow, Scotland.

Researchers will evaluate if community-led food markets can improve access to affordable and nutritious food in lower income households in Glasgow. Through this study the researchers will compare an intervention group (areas of Glasgow with market) pre-and post- market, as well as to a comparator group (areas of Glasgow with no market), to see if the food market intervention improves access to affordable and nutritious foods.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• If community-led food markets increase per-person food purchase of fruits, vegetables, fish and fibre-rich products
• If community-led food markets improve dietary intake of fruit and vegetables, fish and fibre-rich products

The study will also incorporate a process and economic evaluation of the market stalls.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Living in Quintile 1 of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Food market stall

Detailed Description

Socioeconomic deprivation and individual and place deprivation are major drivers of poor diet and ill health in urban households across the UK. Food choices are shaped by the local food environment, culture, individual preferences, and economic and physical accessibility. Solutions to improve access and diet need multi-component approaches. Local food system transformation that facilitates access to sustainable diets that are affordable, nutritious, culturally acceptable, and derived through a people-centred approach is needed to address diet inequalities and promote health. This entails a systems approach with community and local stakeholders participating in the design and delivery of solutions to increase acceptance, participation, engagement and long-term sustainability.

Through a broad partnership in Glasgow supported by Glasgow University and local food organisations, two low-income areas of Glasgow have been selected to establish a weekly community-led food market stalls; Govan and Cranhill. The intention is that the implementation of these food market stalls will improve community members' access to nutritious food. The market stalls will be launched one at a time, developed in consultation with their local communities to ensure that they are appropriate to local needs and circumstances. The market stalls will operate on Saturdays and will run over 6 months each, focusing on providing affordable nutrient-rich foods and increasing exposure and familiarisation to raw ingredients. At one of the markets we will also incorporate food-related art performances and food information activities (e.g. cooking demonstrations) to support participant engagement and food literacy skills.

This study is an impact-, process- and economic- evaluation of the two community-led food market stalls, to explore if they are a viable intervention to improve access to affordable and nutritious food in these communities and enable households to meet dietary targets for fruit, vegetables, oily fish and fibre. We will measure the impact of these food markets to generate evidence to inform expansion of this concept to other localities in Glasgow and beyond. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we will compare an intervention group with a comparator group (areas of Glasgow with no market), pre-and post- market intervention. We will measure participant food purchases, eating behaviours, food literacy and markers of general health and wellbeing at time points (pre- and post- market intervention). We will do this using questionnaires, 24h diet recall and a 7-day food purchasing diary. In addition we will record market attendance and engagement.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 300
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Ada Garcia; Phone Number: +441419560465; Email: Ada.Garcia@glasgow.ac.uk

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Glasgow, United Kingdom
    • Recruiting
    • University of Glasgow
    • Contact: Ada Garcia; Phone Number: +01419560465; Email: Ada.Garcia@glasgow.ac.uk
    • Sub-Investigator: Ellen Williamson

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Eligibility Criteria:

• Residents living in Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 1 and 2 postcodes (localities Govan and Cranhill in Glasgow, Scotland)
• Live in a 20 minute walk to the market stall interventions (Govan or Cranhill in Glasgow, Scotland).
• Be age 18 or over
• English speakers

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention; Participants living within a 20 minute walking area of the food market stall intervention.	Other: Food market stall; Affordable food market stalls set up in Govan and Cranhill, Glasgow. We will also incorporate food-related art performances and food information activities (e.g. cooking demonstrations) at the market to support participant engagement and food literacy skills.
No Intervention: Control; Participants living in areas with high levels of multiple deprivation, without a food market intervention in Glasgow.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline in the per-person purchase (portions/week) of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre-rich products at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a 7 day food purchasing diary.	Participants will complete a 7 day food purchasing diary before (baseline) and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Number of purchased portions of fruits, vegetables, fish and fibre-rich products per week will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change from Baseline in the per-person purchase (portions/week) of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre-rich products at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a food purchasing frequency questionnaire.	Participants will complete a food purchasing frequency questionnaire using an ordinal data scale before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Number of purchased portions of fruits, vegetables, fish and fibre-rich products will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in the per-person dietary intake (portions/day) of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre (g/day) at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a food intake frequency questionnaire.	Participants will complete a food intake frequency questionnaire using an ordinal data scale before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Number of portions per day of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre (g/day) will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in the per-person dietary intake (portions/day) of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre (g/day) at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by an interviewer led 24h diet recall.	Participants will complete an interviewer led 24h diet recall before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Number of portions per day of fruits, vegetables, oily fish and fibre (g/day) will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant food shopping frequency habits and food sourcing locations at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a food shopping frequency questionnaire.	Participants will complete a questionnaire on food shopping frequencies at various food retail outlets using an ordinal data scale before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Shopping frequency (visits/week) at various food retail outlets will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant expenses (£/week) on food shopping at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a 7 day food purchasing diary.	Participants complete a 7 day food purchasing diary before (baseline) and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Food shopping expenses (£/week) will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant expenses (£/week) on food shopping at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by a participant estimate of weekly expenditure.	Participants will complete a question on estimated weekly expenditure (£) on food shopping using an ordinal data scale before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Food shopping expenses (£/week) will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant food literacy at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by the "sustainable food literacy" questionnaire.	Participants will complete a questionnaire sustainable food literacy using a Likert scale before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Food literacy levels will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant food security status at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by the FAO Food Insecurity Experience Scale.	Participants will complete the FAO Food Insecurity Experience Scale questionnaire before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Levels of Food Insecurity will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant quality of life at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by the EQ-5D-5L questionnaire.	Participants will complete the EQ-5D questionnaire before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Quality of life as reported by their EQ-5D-5L index values will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant quality of life at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by the ICE-CAP A questionnaire.	Participants will complete the ICE-CAP A questionnaire before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Quality of life as reported by their ICE-CAP A index values will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant health at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by BMI (kg/m^2).	Participants will report their height (m) and weight (kg) before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Participant health as reported by their calculated BMI (kg/m^2) will be compared (weight and height will be combined to report BMI in kg/m^2).	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Change from Baseline in participant health at 6 Months after market stall intervention, as assessed by the Bristol Stool Chart.	Participants will report their stool type via the Bristol Stool Chart (types 1-7) before and 6 months after the market stall implementation. Participant health as reported by their stool type (1-7) will be compared.	From enrolment until the end of the 6 month market intervention.
Process evaluation of the market stall intervention, as assessed by a participant survey.	A process evaluation will assess the implementation of the intervention in terms of participant satisfaction with the food prices, food variety, and quality of produce at the market stall intervention using market day surveys based on rating scales.	Market day surveys will be done at each market stall during the 6 month intervention.
Process evaluation of the market stall intervention, as assessed by semi-structured interviews.	A process evaluation will assess the implementation of the intervention in terms of participant satisfaction with the food prices, food variety, and quality of produce at the market stall intervention using semi-structured interviews with market attendees.	Semi-structured interviews will be done at the end of the 6 month market intervention.
An economic evaluation "Value for Money" of the market stall intervention will be assessed using cost-effectiveness analysis with a risk-adjusted net present value.	Cost-effectiveness will be assessed over a 12-month horizon using cost-per-primary outcome/QALY, and through a societal perspective. Longer-term cost-effectiveness will be modelled.	This will be completed following the 6 month market intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Glasgow
• Collaborators: The Glasgow School of Art; Cranhill Development Trust; Dig In; Glasgow City Food Plan; Glasgow Centre for Population Health; Glasgow Food Policy Partnership

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Rabin R, de Charro F. EQ-5D: a measure of health status from the EuroQol Group. Ann Med. 2001 Jul;33(5):337-43. doi: 10.3109/07853890109002087.
• Al-Janabi H, Flynn TN, Coast J. Development of a self-report measure of capability wellbeing for adults: the ICECAP-A. Qual Life Res. 2012 Feb;21(1):167-76. doi: 10.1007/s11136-011-9927-2. Epub 2011 May 20.
• Lean ME, Anderson AS, Morrison C, Currall J. Evaluation of a dietary targets monitor. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 May;57(5):667-73. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601596.
• Gorham G, Dulin-Keita A, Risica PM, Mello J, Papandonatos G, Nunn A, Gorham S, Roberson M, Gans KM. Effectiveness of Fresh to You, a Discount Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Market in Low-Income Neighborhoods, on Children's Fruit and Vegetable Consumption, Rhode Island, 2010-2011. Prev Chronic Dis. 2015 Oct 15;12:E176. doi: 10.5888/pcd12.140583.
• Sauveplane-Stirling V, Crichton D, Tessier S, Parrett A, Garcia AL. The food retail environment and its use in a deprived, urban area of Scotland. Public Health. 2014 Apr;128(4):360-6. doi: 10.1016/j.puhe.2013.11.005. Epub 2014 Apr 13.
• Chambers S, Barton KL, Albani V, Anderson AS, Wrieden WL. Identifying dietary differences between Scotland and England: a rapid review of the literature. Public Health Nutr. 2017 Oct;20(14):2459-2477. doi: 10.1017/S1368980017001380. Epub 2017 Jul 20.

Helpful Links

• Project website

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 2, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 30, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 9, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): July 15, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 15, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 9, 2026
• Last Verified: July 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Scotland; Glasgow; Food market; Quasi experimental design
• Other Study ID Numbers: 200250189; UKRI1231 (Other Grant/Funding Number: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI))

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No