Using FoodChecker for health services
Get a free and instant report of the food and drinks you supply with our online assessment tool, FoodChecker!

Use FoodChecker to assess menus, vending machines, recipes and products according to both:
- the Victorian Government’s Healthy choices: policy directive for Victorian public health services*
- original Healthy Choices guidelines**
When you use FoodChecker you will receive instant feedback on screen, plus a PDF report to download and save. It contains feedback on the foods and drinks you supply, and tailored recommendations for healthier changes.
You can do an assessment anytime, anywhere!
Want to supply healthier foods and drinks in your organisation?
FoodChecker makes it easy.
With FoodChecker, you can plan and assess menus and vending machines that meet government guidelines for long day care, schools, hospitals, sport and recreation facilities and more!
It’s free and easy to use.
Find ingredients fast, save your favourite recipes, and go faster with our templates for common recipes.
You can also search the database to find over 10,000 products classified as GREEN, AMBER or RED. Or assess new products yourself.
You’ll get instant and accurate results, and tailored advice for healthier changes.
Want to make changes? Simply copy a previous assessment, add, remove or edit your items, and resubmit for updated results.
Say goodbye to time-consuming manual assessments and spreadsheets – FoodChecker takes the hard work out of planning menus and vending machines that meet government guidelines.
Get started today at foodchecker.au.
Using FoodChecker for assessing against the Policy directive
When completing assessments in FoodChecker it’s imperative that you are using the Policy directive flow and not the original Healthy Choices flow. To ensure you are using the correct option:
- Ensure you select your organisation type as ‘health service’ and nominate that you are doing a Policy directive assessment.
- After completing your assessment you will receive a PDF report. The top of the report’s second page notes the assessment criteria used – it should state that you have done an assessment according to the Healthy choices: policy directive for Victorian public health services.
Click here for step-by-step instructions on using FoodChecker for the Policy directive.
You can use FoodChecker to assess retail food outlet or catering menus, and vending machines.
Your PDF report will include:
- a classification for every food and drink item you entered (GREEN, AMBER or RED)
- recommendations for healthier alternatives
- the overall percentage of GREEN, AMBER or RED items in your menu or vending machine
- recommendations to decrease the amount of RED options and increase the amount of GREEN items
- advice on promoting your healthier options
When you make changes to your menu or vending machine you can reassess these online. You can also use FoodChecker to plan future menus or vending machines that meet the Policy directive.
Start gathering information about the foods and drinks you want to assess.
You can use our Counting Guide to help you understand exactly how to count items within your menu or vending machine.
You will need:
- a recipe for every food and drink item made on site
- the name and nutrition information for all packaged and pre-made items (‘products’).
Recipe assessments
You can use FoodChecker to find out if your recipes are classified GREEN, AMBER or RED.
Your results will include the recipe classification, plus recommendations on how to make it healthier, such as modifying ingredients or reducing the serving size.
You can enter your own recipe or use the ‘Common recipes’ feature to select from hundreds of standard recipes that you can modify to match your own. You can also save recipes to use in future.
Product assessments
You can use FoodChecker to find out if the branded food and drink products you supply are classified GREEN, AMBER or RED.
Select from thousands of items already in our database, or assess a new item by entering details from the label and save it to your account.
Your report will include each product’s classification, with feedback and suggestions for a healthier options (if relevant).
Search products
Search the database of over 10,000 packaged food and drinks items, to find healthier GREEN and AMBER foods and drinks for retail outlets, catering and vending machines.
* Please note: this does not apply to hospital inpatient menus or patient food services.
** All Victorian public health services are strongly encouraged to implement the Healthy choices: policy directive for Victorian public health services across all of their retail food outlets – both in-house and privately/commercially managed. However, the original Healthy Choices guidelines can still be applied in private health services and public health services with privately/commercially managed retail food outlets.
For more information please phone 1300 22 52 88 or email heas@nnf.org.au
Except where otherwise indicated, the images in this document show models and illustrative settings only, and do not necessarily depict actual services, facilities or recipients of services. This document may contain images of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In this document, ‘Aboriginal’ refers to both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. ‘Indigenous’ or ‘Koori/Koorie’ is retained when part of the title of a report, program or quotation. Copyright © State of Victoria 2016
Written and reviewed by dietitians and nutritionists at National Nutrition Foundation, with support from the Victorian Government.

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