Department of Health

Victorian public health services hit 100% compliance under healthy choices policy

16/02/26
A platter of chicken wraps on a plate above bowls of green salad.

Victorian public health services have reached another important milestone in promoting healthier food environments for staff, patients and visitors. For the second year in a row, services have maintained success, and now all services have achieved 100% compliance under the Healthy choices: policy directive and guidelines for health services.

Introduced in 2021, the Healthy choices: policy directive helps make the 'healthy choice the easy choice' by requiring public health services to offer healthy food and drink options. This applies across key areas such as in-house managed cafés, vending machines and food provided at staff meetings.

This year's results show continued sector wide commitment to health promotion, with:

  • 100% (59/59) of health services with in-house retail met the requirements
  • 100% (38/38) of health services with vending machines met the requirements
  • 100% (80/80) of health services had a catering or healthy eating policy in place.

A full report of this year's findings will be published on the policy page soon.

Participating public health services were supported throughout implementation by the Healthy Eating Advisory ServiceExternal Link , which provided guidance, tools and support to help services meet the policy requirements. As noted by a participating health service, the support has been valuable:

"It was my first time reporting on the policy directive and Healthy Eating Advisory Service has been amazing at supporting us and walking us through it."

We would like to thank the participating health services and the Healthy Eating Advisory Service for their collaboration and continued commitment to creating healthy food and drink environments.

Reviewed 16 February 2026

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