Field validation of secondary commercial data sources on the retail food outlet environment in the U.S.

► This study used field observations to validate food store and restaurant commercial data. ► Interior outlet characteristics were used to classify food store and restaurant types. ► The stratified random sample included 274 urban, 46 suburban and 61 rural census tracts.► Results showed that agreement was generally moderate (ranging from fair to good).► Validation agreement based on an exact classification match was only fair.