Guide to counting foods and drinks

[Text displayed on screen] Counting Guide.  

Counting foods and drinks in your retail outlet is an essential part of being able to input information into Food Checker accurately and receive correct results.  

Follow along to find out how best to count the items in your retail outlet. Some organizations start by entering their recipes into Food Checker.  

Others start by identifying and counting all products in their retail outlet and adding these to a Food Checker menu assessment. To help you with counting, take photos in the retail outlet or get a copy of the menu.  

Overall, each time food appears in a unique location in your outlet, each different variety, flavor or type of food item is counted once. It doesn’t matter how many times it appears on the shelf, items presented in the Bay Marie or as ready to serve meals should be counted once, regardless of how many spaces the item takes up.  

For example, the fried rice is shown in two trays and serves many people, but as it’s only one variety, it is added to Food Checker once. And counted as one option.  

If there are two varieties, for example one vegetarian and one with meat, each variety would count as one item. Each filling available in a sandwich bar should also be counted once. Items such as bread wraps and rolls should be counted for each variety.  

This outlet has bread rolls in three varieties whole meal, white and multigrain. Therefore, three items would be included in the food checker assessment. Each variety counts as one option.  

In this sandwich bar, the lettuce appears in two containers but is counted as one option and therefore only entered into food checker once.  

There are two containers of cheese in this sandwich bar. One is reduced fat, and one is regular fat, meaning that these count as two separate options. Food items in fridges and readymade items should also be counted once for each time they appear.  

For example, there are five strawberry yogurts. These count as one option and therefore are added to food checker once there are. Also vanilla yogurts.  

These also count as one option. The four fruit salads are also counted as one option. Each flavour or variety is only counted once, not every time it appears.  

Snack foods available for purchase are counted once for each flavour, variety or type. Each time you have a different snack flavour or variety, this should be reflected in food checker.  

For example, with these chip displays, one has many packets of original chips, and they are counted once. The other chip display has five different flavours and therefore is counted as five different items.  

Items available on a menu board should also be reflected in your food checker assessment to avoid double counting. These items should only be counted when they are not represented elsewhere in the retail outlet.  

For example, the jacket potatoes are visible on the Bain Marie, so they don’t need to be counted again from the menu board. The Thai beef salad on the menu board, however, is not visible in the retail outlet, so it should be added to food checker. Drinks fridges like vending machines use. Different approach.  

Each front facing item in the drink’s fridge should be counted once. This is because drinks fridges and vending machines have a structured layout and are automatically refilled in this layout which allows them to be easily counted.  

For example, the bottles of water in this fridge take up 27 positions. Therefore, they are added to Food Checker and copied to show 27 bottles of water.  

Now you know how to count items in your retail outlet. Use food checker to complete your assessment.  

Contact us for dedicated support. Our expert dietitians and nutritionists are ready to help.  

[Text displayed on screen] heas.health.vic.gov.au.