AMBIENTE ALIMENTAR COMUNITÁRIO E DO CONSUMIDOR EM UM MUNICÍPIO NA AMAZÔNIA OCIDENTAL, BRASIL

The objective of the present study was to describe the community and consumer food environment in a remote access municipality in the interior of Amazonas. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Coari, state of Amazonas, Brazil, from November 2022 to July 2023. Food establishments in the 16 main urban neighborhoods of the municipality were identified and their typology was described. Based on the profile of the identified establishments, a random selection was conducted to obtain a representative sample of locations, which were audited by previously trained researchers using the NOVA-Based Food Environment Audit instrument (AUDIT-NOVA), adapted to regional food characteristics after a pilot study. Among the 127 audited establishments, small stores (46.5%) and local markets (32.3%) predominate, offering mainly ultra-processed foods. Fruit and vegetable markets are infrequent in the municipality (3 establishments) and presented the largest variety of fruits (16.7) and the second largest variety of vegetables and legumes (13.7), including regional foods added to the instrument (12.3 and 11.7, respectively). Therefore, it is noted that the food environment of Coari-AM favors access to ultra-processed foods, while there are few places that sell fresh foods.