Healthy choices: policy directive for Victorian public health services overview
The Policy directive strengthens Victorian public health services as places that support the health and wellbeing of their staff and visitors.
It requires services to ensure that healthier food and drinks are sold, provided and promoted across all of their sites and facilities.
[Text displayed on screen] Healthy choices – Policy directive for Victorian public health services.Â
In April 2021, the Victorian government announced the Healthy Choices Policy Directive for Victorian Public Health Services. Â
This policy directive ensures that Victorian public health services sell, provide and promote healthier food and drinks in their facilities. Â
I’m Bridget Dietitian from the Healthy Eating Advisory Service, and I’m going to walk you through the policy Directive and what it means for your health service. These changes will apply to any items for purchase via in house retail food outlets, all vending machines, staff and visitor catering, as well as items purchased by staff via patient or resident menus. Health services are encouraged to also implement the policy in their commercial retail outlets. By September 30, 2022, your service will no longer be able to sell, provide, or promote high sugar red category drinks. Â
It must provide at least 50% green drinks and no more than 50% amber drinks, with no more than 20% of these being artificially sweetened. By September 30, 2023, your service will be required to meet the Healthy Choices Guidelines for food, meeting the targets of at least 50% green food and no more than 20% red food independent of drinks and no red food is to be provided through catering. Â
Health services will be required to demonstrate that they meet these requirements to the Department of Health via specified reporting methods and time frames. Â
Further information about this will be provided to health services by the Department. Â
By making these changes, your service will be joining the significant number of health services already doing great work in this space, each of whom have demonstrated positive responses from staff and visitors and pleasing results to their bottom line. You play an important role in this implementation and will be a vital part of engaging and assisting both leadership and food service staff to understand and adopt these changes. Â
The Healthy Eating Advisory Service are the experts in Healthy Choices implementation and are here to help you and your organization. We offer free, tailored support to help you engage management and food service staff and assess your menu to meet the requirements of the Policy Directive. Â
Together, we have an opportunity to positively influence. 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.Â
[Text displayed on screen] Contact the Healthy Eating Advisory Service, www.heas.health.vic.gov.au, 1300 22 52 88. Â
The food and drink targets
| Drinks | Food |
|---|---|
| Vending and in-house retail* food outlets: No RED drinks to be available or promoted/advertised. At least 50% GREEN drinks, and no more than 20% drinks containing artificial or intense sweeteners (classified AMBER) are available. | Vending and in-house retail* food outlets: At least 50% GREEN foods and no more than 20% RED foods are available. No RED foods to be promoted or advertised. Combination food and drink vending machines: At least 50% GREEN items (combination of foods and drinks) no more than 20% AMBER artificially sweetened drinks and no more than 20% RED foods are available (no RED drinks allowed). no RED foods to be promoted/advertised. |
| Catering: No RED drinks are provided (with majority of options to be GREEN). | Catering: No RED food is provided (with majority of options to be GREEN). |
Please note, it is no longer recommended to traffic light label food and drinks on display. Instead, use the Policy directive targets for behind the scenes menu planning to make sure there are plenty of healthier food and drink options on offer. Access to a wide range of delicious healthier foods and drinks can increase variety and support staff and visitors to feel good and go about their day with energy and ease.
Why has it been developed?
The Policy directive is about increasing opportunity and choice for staff and visitors in public health services to access healthy food and drink options.
It supports call to actions from the World Health Organization’s Action framework for developing and implementing public food procurement and service policies for a healthy diet as well as the Australian Government’s health sector to lead in healthier food and drink choices for visitors and staff.
Where does the Policy apply?
The Policy directive applies to all sites and facilities across public health services including, but not limited to:
- hospitals
- public sector residential aged care services (PSRACS)
- integrated community health services
The Policy directive applies to the following food services within public health services:
- in-house managed retail food outlets, including items purchased by staff and visitors from patient/resident menus
- all vending machines (managed in-house and privately/commercially managed)
- all catering* provided to visitors and staff
Victorian public health services are also encouraged to implement the Policy directive in their commercially managed retail outlets.
The Policy directive also includes foods and drinks provided (free) on the ward or in staff rooms/waiting rooms for staff and visitors (e.g. tea/coffee, water, fruit, biscuits, lollies). Whilst not included in the Policy directive, health services are encouraged to promote and communicate their healthy catering policy to any external groups using their facilities, for example community support groups.
* Catering applies to staff procuring food and drinks with health service (government funds) for meetings, functions, and events.
FoodChecker
The FoodChecker Policy directive assessment function allows you to assess retail food outlets, vending machines and catering against the Policy directive targets.
For more information on how to use FoodChecker read through our FoodChecker Instructions.
Reporting to the Department of Health
In Septemberhealth services have access to Progress Tracker, the online reporting tool where health services report their progress towards the Policy directive to the Department of Health.
Only FoodChecker assessments you choose to submit via this online portal are visible to the Department of Health.
For catering, we encourage you to complete a FoodChecker assessment to ensure alignment with the Policy directive targets. However, you will not need to submit catering assessments in Progress Tracker. A simple ‘yes’ to having a policy that ensures catering is supplied in line with the Policy directive requirements is required.
Case study: Maintaining the Policy directive
Laurey, a Health Promotion Officer at Central Highlands Rural Health, shares how her team successfully implemented the Healthy choices: policy directive across five sites.
I’m Laurey, a Health Promotion Officer at Central Highlands Rural Health.
I work as part of a team here to implement the Healthy Choices: Policy Directive for Victorian public health services across five different sites.
We have vending machines, and our inpatient menus are available for staff to access. I’m going to step you through the components that helped us implement the Policy Directive.
One of the strengths of our approach is our working party, which brings together all the essential staff members needed for successful Policy Directive implementation. This includes our dietitian, who advises us on how to ensure our inpatient menus also meet the needs of the Policy Directive for staff.
Our food service team is also integral, guiding us on implementation and menu development. Additionally, having members of our executive team involved helps us progress and prioritize initiatives effectively.
As a Health Promotion Officer, I coordinate the implementation of the Policy Directive.
We manage our working party through the food and nutrition committee, which meets bi-monthly. This committee provides a structured environment to discuss updates and keep the directive at the forefront of our efforts.
Our working party also assists us with continuous auditing and monitoring. Throughout the year, we ensure our menu aligns with the Policy Directive, updating FoodChecker with any new products or recipes.
At reporting time, we use FoodChecker to ensure all our menus, recipes, and food product information is up-to-date and compliant. We then submit this to the Department of Health via Progress Tracker.
We share our Policy Directive reports and success within the health service to ensure staff and our leadership team are aware of our ongoing Policy Directive commitment.
To provide healthier catering at our health service, we work closely with our food service team to develop a menu that meets the targets and aligns with our catering policy. We share this menu with our staff and ensure the policy and progress are clearly communicated.
Finally, we work closely with our vending supplier to develop and maintain compliant vending machines. Any new products are checked in FoodChecker before being added to the vending machines.
Communication is an important part of our Policy Directive maintenance.
We use various methods to keep our staff and visitors informed. Our staff newsletters, social media updates, and screensavers ensure everyone is in the loop about new café menus and changes to our vending machine offerings.
We use posters in our café to promote our menu options. Working as a team has allowed us to implement and sustain the Policy Directive.
The Healthy Eating Advisory Service is a great resource to support us in maintaining the Policy Directive. We use HEAS online resources, FoodChecker, and one-on-one coaching to ensure our ongoing success.
HEAS are here to support you in assessing your food and drinks against the Policy directive targets. Complete our online training course Maintaining the Policy directive to learn about how to continue successfully implementing the Policy directive in your health service. You can contact our dedicated team for information and advice specific to your health service’s needs.
| HEAS |
|---|
| Healthy Eating Advisory Service |
| Ph: 1300 22 52 88 E: heas@nnf.org.au |
Helpful resources
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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The Healthy Eating Advisory Service acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we operate. We pay our respects to them, their culture and their Elders past and present.
The Healthy Eating Advisory Service is delivered by experienced nutritionists and dietitians at National Nutrition Foundation, with support from the Victorian Government.
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