Open AccessGovernment food service policies and guidelines do not create healthy school canteens
Author(s) -
de SilvaSanigorski Andrea,
Breheny Tara,
Jones Laura,
Lacy Kathleen,
Kremer Peter,
Carpenter Lauren,
Bolton Kristy,
Prosser Lauren,
Gibbs Lisa,
Waters Elizabeth,
Swinburn Boyd
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 1326-0200
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.2010.00694.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , service (business) , business , food service , compliance (psychology) , environmental health , investment (military) , food safety , healthy food , advertising , medicine , marketing , psychology , political science , food science , politics , social psychology , philosophy , linguistics , pathology , law , chemistry
ObjectiveIn 2006, the Victorian Government adopted the School Canteens and other school Food Services (SCFS) Policy that bans the sale of sweet drinks and confectionary and recommends the proportions of menu items based on a traffic light system of food classification. This study aims to determine whether compliance with the policy improves the nutritional profile of the menus.MethodsItems from food service menus were assessed for compliance with the SCFS policy and categorised as ‘everyday’ (‘green’), ‘select carefully’ (‘amber’) or ‘occasionally’ (‘red’) (n=106). Profile analysis assessed differences in the nutritional profile of the menus between sub‐groups.ResultsOverall, 37% of menus contained items banned under the policy. The largest proportion of items on the assessed menus were from the ‘amber’ category (mean: 51.0%), followed by ‘red’ (29.3%) and ‘green’ (20.3%). No menus met the traffic light‐based recommendations and there was no relationship between policy compliance and the proportion of items in each of the three categories.Conclusions and implicationsTo increase the healthiness of the school food service we recommend a greater investment in resources and infrastructure to implement existing policies, and establishing stronger monitoring and support systems.