Food Delivery Apps and the Digital Food Environment with Dr Sisi Jia

Sign up to my fatloss in the festive season webinar here. https://www.mikkiwilliden.com/fatloss-in-the-festive-season-2026
Save 20% on all Nuzest Products WORLDWIDE with the code MIKKIPEDIA at www.nuzest.co.nz, www.nuzest.com.au or www.nuzest.com



Episode Summary
Dr Sisi Jia is a research fellow and accredited practising dietitian at the University of Sydney, where she leads the food environments work in the Youth Well Lab. Her research looks at diet and food environments as modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and in particular at how food delivery apps and other digital platforms are shaping what young people eat. Sisi trained in dietetics, but seeing how hard it is to change long-standing eating habits one client at a time pushed her towards public health and prevention.
Mikki and Sisi talk about how delivery apps steer our choices through rankings, discounts, free delivery and checkout upsells, why nutrition information that is required in store often disappears online, and what Sisi's group found when they looked at dark kitchens, schools and the transport hubs earmarked for new housing in New South Wales. They also discuss what young people themselves say about food courts and ordering food to school, why framing food choice as purely personal responsibility misses the influence of marketing, cost and time, and some practical ideas for families who use these apps.
Key Topics
  • Sisi's path from a Bachelor of Science and Master of Nutrition and Dietetics into public health, after seeing how hard it is to change an individual's long-held eating habits
  • How the food environment, including paid placement and commercial influence, shapes what we choose, and whether the same thing is happening on delivery apps
  • Why young people are a key concern: delivery apps grew rapidly with COVID, are marketed to younger people, and Uber Eats has launched a feature aimed at teenagers
  • Nutrition information online: kilojoule labelling has flaws, but Sisi argues it is still better than nothing, and her group found kilojoule information that is mandatory in NSW fast-food outlets was often missing on delivery apps
  • How apps nudge choices through prominent positioning, discounts and vouchers, free delivery and "do you want fries with that" upsells, and why fast-food chains take up more of the visible space even though most outlets on the apps are independent restaurants and cafes
  • Commercial determinants of health and personal responsibility, and how community voice helped stop a proposed 24/7 McDonald's in Redfern
  • Sisi's study of food outlets around eight NSW transport hubs set for accelerated development, and why planning for healthy food before development happens is easier than fixing it afterwards
  • Dark kitchens: one kitchen trading under several brand names on delivery apps, the food safety and transparency questions this raises, and Oporto's delivery-only brand Basted
  • What young people said in a consultation for Sisi's group's school food environment study, including ordering food to school and seeing food courts as important places to socialise
  • Practical ideas for families (a balanced diet most days, and choosing options like brown rice or extra vegetables when ordering) and the inequities that make healthy food harder to access for some groups
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:22 From dietetics to public health
07:22 Food delivery apps and young people
11:03 Nutrition information and kilojoule labelling
15:55 How delivery apps nudge our choices
22:11 Personal responsibility and community action
28:15 Transport hubs and planning policy
32:41 Dark kitchens
36:53 Regulating the digital food environment
40:05 Young people, schools and food courts
42:47 Practical tips and food inequities
47:00 Youth Well Lab and wrap-up
Guest / Resources
  • Dr Sisi Jia, Youth Well Lab, University of Sydney: youthwelllab.com. Sisi says the lab also shares its latest papers and presentations on LinkedIn
  • Cassano S, Jia A, Gibson AA, Partridge SR, Chan V, Farrell P, Phongsavan P, Allman-Farinelli M, Jia SS. Benchmarking online food delivery applications against menu labelling laws: a cross-sectional observational analysis. Public Health Nutrition, 2024: doi.org/10.1017/S1368980024000673
  • Jia SS, Brown H, Moore HJ, Lake AA, Gibson AA, Partridge SR. Digital chameleons of the food environment: an exploratory analysis of the shapeshifting nature of dark kitchens in Australia and their regulatory challenges. BMC Public Health, 2026: doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-28642-0
  • Yuen SC, Pavlicevic M, Astell-Burt T, Woodcock I, Gibson A, Partridge S, Jia S. Evaluating the food environment in eight transport hubs identified in the New South Wales transport oriented development program. Cities & Health, 2026: doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2026.2685258
  • Tse K, Zeng MX, Gibson AA, Partridge SR, et al., Jia SS. Retrospective analysis of regional and metropolitan school food environments using Google Street View: a case study in New South Wales, Australia with youth consultation. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 2024: doi.org/10.1002/hpja.930
  • The Boden Institute at the University of Sydney, where Sisi did a Year 10 work experience placement shadowing a research dietitian

Curranz Supplement: Use code MIKKIPEDIA to get 20% off your first order - go to www.curranz.co.nz  or www.curranz.co.uk to order yours
NZ listeners - save 10% off Calocurb by using the code Mikkipedia10 at www.calocurb.co.nz

Contact Mikki:
https://mikkiwilliden.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mikkiwillidennutrition
https://www.instagram.com/mikkiwilliden/
https://linktr.ee/mikkiwilliden