Canadian Food Environment Dataset: Data File
This document prepared by:
Michael Spracklin (Statistics Canada, Center for Special Business Projects)
Marcello Barisonzi (Statistics Canada, Center for Special Business Projects)
Jérôme Blanchet (Statistics Canada, Center for Special Business Projects)
Michael Widener (Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto)
Martin Holmes (Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto)
Sharon Kirkpatrick (School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo)
Leia Minaker (School of Planning, University of Waterloo)
Rachel Murphy (School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia)
Nancy Ross (Department of Public Health Sciences, Queen's University).
Special thanks and acknowledgements to:
Andrew Stevenson (School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh)
Alexandra Pepetone (School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia)
Parveen Bhatti (School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia)
Jennifer Vena (Cancer Care Alberta & Alberta Tomorrow project).
The Canadian Food Environment Dataset (Can-FED) Version 2 is a pan-Canadian dataset of retail food environment measures at the dissemination area (DA) level based on food outlet data from the 2024 Statistics Canada Business Register, developed by Statistics Canada.
The Can-FED is a geographic-based set of measures that represents the food environment of Canadian communities. The primary envisioned use of the Can-FED is research and analysis of the relationship between the local food environment, dietary intake and health outcomes. By using geography conversion tools such as the Standard Geographical Classification, it is possible to link Can-FED measures to individual-level health data from national-level survey platforms (e.g., the Canadian Health Measures Survey and the Canadian Community Health Survey) or to investigator-led cohorts. A diversity of food categories was chosen to represent an inclusive set of different and overarching food outlet types, such as retailers with healthy food options (e.g., supermarkets, grocery stores), convenient food options (e.g., corner stores, fast-food outlets), and independent and specialty retailers (e.g., bakeries, fish markets, coffee shops), amongst other options.
For more information on the Can-FED, please refer to the User Guide.
For a more detailed version of this dataset, please refer to Statistics Canada’s Research Data Centres (Record number 8006): Data available at the Research Data Centres.
For more information on the Can-FED, please refer to a Methodological Insight published in Health Reports in 2022: A pan-Canadian dataset of neighbourhood retail food environment measures using Statistics Canada's Business Register.
CanFED (2024) data file - 1- and 3-km buffers: ZIP
CanFED (2018) data file - 1-km buffer : CSV
CanFED (2018) data file - 3-km buffer : CSV
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