Healthy Choices: Food and drink guidelines for Victorian public hospitals

Overview

As public facilities with a high profile in the community, hospitals can play a positive role in promoting health and wellbeing.

Healthy choices: food and drink guidelines for Victorian public hospitals, released by the Department of Health in 2010 provide a voluntary framework for improving the availability, display and promotion of healthier foods and drinks at retail outlets and in vending machines on hospital grounds.

Although the guidelines are voluntary, all hospitals are encouraged to implement these guidelines to create a health promoting environment.

The aim of the guidelines is to make healthy food choices the easy choice on Victorian hospital grounds. The guidelines help do this by creating an environment which provides and actively promotes nutritious food and drinks and limits the availability and promotion of unhealthy options available for purchase.

Scope of the guidelines

The guidelines apply to retail outlets where food and drink is available for purchase including:

• cafeterias, cafes, coffee shops, kiosks and canteens
• other shops and retail outlets on hospital grounds that sell predominantly food and drinks
• mobile kiosks selling food and drinks to visitors and staff
• vending machines.