Ultra-processed food environments: Aligning policy beliefs from the state, market, and civil society
Why is finding solutions to combat the increasing access to affordable ultra-processed foods so controversial and what strategies are necessary for policy change? To address this question, this chapter applies a political economy analysis of coalitions and policy beliefs in the ultra-processed food environment in Ghana. By combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework with the discourse analysis approach and factor analysis, the chapter reveals a trichotomy of coalitions in the food environment, consisting of state, market, and civil society actors. The discourses reveal shared policy beliefs among these coalitions on the need for more regulation, independent beliefs on production incentives, and divergent beliefs on public awareness. The evidence highlights entry points for policy-oriented learning and policy change, including subsidies to support access to healthy foods, a prohibitive tax on ultra-processed foods, voluntary regulations, labeling and advertisement bans, and regulatory instruments.