Public Health Nutrition: 13(11), 1764–1772 doi:10.1017/S1368980010001588 Texas nutrition environment assessment of retail food stores (TxNEA-S): development and evaluation Christian T Gloria* and Mary A Steinhardt Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, College of Education, The University of Texas at Austin, 1 University Station D3700, Austin, TX 78712-0306, USA Submitted 27 September 2009: Accepted 22 April 2010: First published online 11 June 2010 Abstract Objective: Current nutrition environment instruments are typically designed to measure a small number of healthy foods based on national trends. They lack the depth to accurately measure the unique dietary choices of subpopulations, such as Texas consumers whose food preferences are influenced by Hispanic/Latino culture. Thus the purposes of the present study were to: (i) develop a compre- hensive observational tool to measure the availability of healthy foods from retail stores in Texas; and (ii) conduct a pilot test to examine the tool’s reliability, as well as differences in the availability of healthy foods in stores between high- and low-income neighbourhoods. Design: Grocery and convenience stores were assessed for availability of healthy foods. Reliability was calculated using percentage agreement, and differences in availability were examined using 2 (store type) 3 2 (neighbourhood income) ANOVA. Setting: One high-income and one low-income neighbourhood in Austin, Texas. Subjects: A sample of thirty-eight stores comprising twenty-five convenience stores and thirteen grocery stores. Results: The low-income neighbourhood had 324 % more convenience stores and 56 % fewer grocery stores than the high-income neighbourhood. High inter-rater (mean 5 0?95) and test–retest reliability (mean 5 0?92) and a significant interac- tion (P 5 0?028) between store type and neighbourhood income were found. Conclusions: The TxNEA-S tool includes 106 healthy food items, such as fruits, vegetables, dairy, proteins and grains. The tool is reliable and face validity is affirmed by the Texas Department of Health. Grocery stores have more healthy foods than convenience stores, and high-income grocery stores offer more healthy foods than low-income grocery stores. Keywords Healthy food Availability Grocery store Convenience store The obesity epidemic is one of the leading national health concerns due to its serious consequences and rapidly increasing prevalence in the USA (1–3) . Currently, about 66 % of US adults and 32 % of children and adolescents are either overweight or obese (4,5) . Similar trends are also experienced in Texas (6,7) , which was ranked as the fifth unhealthiest state in the nation (8) . If current patterns continue, 75 % of Texas adults could become overweight or obese by 2040, and health-care costs would quadruple from $US 10?5 billion to over $US 39 billion (9) . Individuals can only be as healthy as the community in which they reside (10,11) . Simply educating individuals and increasing awareness regarding the importance of healthy eating cannot effectively change behaviour and promote healthier lifestyles if their neighbourhoods fail to provide healthy food options. In order to improve health, it is imperative to improve the surrounding food environ- ment. Organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute of Medicine, the International Obesity Task Force and the WHO insist that environmental interventions are the most effective strategies for positively ‘shifting the curve’ and creating population-wide improvements in dietary intake and weight status (12–16) . A growing body of research suggests that the food environment – the presence of food outlets and the available food products therein – influences consumer eating behaviour and contributes to overweight and obesity in the USA and around the world (11,17–22) . Glanz et al. (11) identified ‘nutrition environments’ as having the highest priority in research as they are the least under- stood yet could have the greatest impact on overweight and obesity. Research suggests that dietary intake is the main determinant of obesity and a greater predictor of weight outcome as compared with physical activity and energy expenditure (23,24) . Greater availability of healthy *Corresponding author: Email ctgloria@mail.utexas.edu r The Authors 2010