Existing food security scales lack the ability to capture unique cultural dimensions for immigrant populationsCultural Food Security Matters for Immigrant and Refugee Communities

The ability to reliably access, afford, or obtain foods that are culturally significant, familiar, and aligned with one’s identity, foodways, religious beliefs, and the sociocultural preferences is an important aspect of food and nutrition security in immigrant communities. This is because access to culturally appropriate food is crucial for maintaining perceived healthy dietary and nutritional practices, finding comfort, and growing a sense of place. However, the existing food security measurement scales have been criticized for their limited ability to adequately capture the unique aspects of cultural food security as experienced by newcomer populations. As such, the existing measures under estimate the prevalence and the significant health and wellbeing effects of cultural food security. Furthermore, recent studies have argued for recognition cultural food security as a distinct concept with its own indicators relevant to newcomers, yet limited to no studies exist that have comprehensively reviewed and synthesized the existing conceptualization and definition of cultural food security. We address this knowledge gap by mapping and synthesizing the existing literature on the definition of cultural food security, the adopted indicators, and the associated benefits of cultural food security for immigrants and refugees. The review followed the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines and synthesized journal articles retrieved from five databases: PubMed, Scopus, Medline, CINAHL Plus, and Academic Search Complete. Flowing Braun and Clarke’s Reflexive thematic analysis, we synthesized 18 studies that met the inclusion criteria for this review. We found variability and diversity in the definition of cultural food security. Most of the studies have adopted existing food security scales to estimate cultural food security, yet the scales inadequately capture the food security realities of immigrants, refugees, and ethno-cultural groups in the destination communities. Additionally, cultural food security in migrant communities transcends the conventional food security indicators to embody the unique migration and resettlement experiences. By synthesizing the existing studies that have explored how cultural food security in migrant population has been assessed, this study generates evidence on the relevance of considering the unique indicators of the aspects of food security that appreciates the reciprocal relations with the land, the practice of sharing of food and food cultures, and a collectivist lens to eating of food and to food access, which are relevant to immigrant communities. The evidence is important in creating culturally responsive food security interventions and in ensuring improved sense of place and settlement of newcomers.