in april 2021 the victorian government announced the healthy choices policy directive for victorian public health services
i’m bridget a nutrition policy advisor
from the healthy eating advisory service
and i’m going to walk you through the
policy directive and what it means for
your organisation
public health services play a vital
leadership role in promoting health and
wellbeing
through the services they provide and
the food and drinks they offer to staff
and visitors
the purpose of the directive is to
ensure that all victorian public health
services
sell provide and promote healthier food
and drinks
through their in-house retail food
outlets all vending machines and
catering
as well as items purchased by staff via
patient or resident menus
health services are also encouraged to
implement the policy
in their commercial retail outlets
the policy will be phased in over two
years with mandatory reporting to the
department of health
the first phase requires that no high
sugar drinks
are sold provided or promoted by
september 30
2022 there are also requirements
around the provision of artificially
sweetened drinks
the second phase requires that the
provision of food
meets the healthy choices guidelines
which is the victorian government’s
traffic light system for classifying
food and drinks
this equates to at least 50 green food
and no more than 20 red food via
in-house retail and vending machines
and no red food to be supplied by a
staff or visitor catering
by september 30 2023
our experience working with health
services already implementing healthy
choices
has shown a positive response from staff
and visitors
with no overall negative effects on
revenue or customer satisfaction
as leaders you can support your
organisation
by championing this work supporting your
health promotion and food service staff
to implement these changes and joining
the significant number of health
services
already doing great work in this space
the team of dietitians at the healthy
eating advisory service
have already helped over 180 hospitals
and community health services implement
healthy choices
supported by the victorian government it
is our role to help ensure
your organization meets the policy too
together we have an opportunity to
positively influence the food and drinks
provided to your staff and visitors to
increase the number of healthier options
available
and to support the health and wellbeing
of all who access your health service.
