Food in settings

Policies and programmes that promote healthy eating in public sector services (like education and health) are important for making healthy foods more available and accessible. Because a significant proportion of the population receive food from these services, the foods and drinks on offer should promote a healthy diet.

Indicator	Result	What was measured?	Source
Early childhood eduction (ECE) centres
Schools
Proportion of ‘milk and water only’ schools		Types of beverages for sale at 434 primary and 143 secondary schools across NZ that sold food and/or beverages, in 2016.	D’Souza et al. (2022)
Primary schools	67.5%
Secondary schools	23.3%
Proportion of food groups offered for sale in schools that were ‘occasional’^		Types of foods for sale at 434 primary and 143 secondary schools across NZ that sold food and/or beverages, in 2016.	How healthy are New Zealand’s food environments? (2018)
Primary schools	58.2%
Secondary schools	57.4%
Proportion of schools not using food and beverages for fundraising		Methods of fundraising used at 530 primary and 138 secondary schools across NZ, in 2016	How healthy are New Zealand’s food environments? (2018)
Primary schools	18.2%
Secondary schools	19.8%
Hospitals
Number of District Health Boards that have fully adopted the National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP)^^	8/20	Written nutrition policies from the 20 District Health Boards as part of the comprehensive national evaluation of the implementation of the NHFDP, in 2021.	Gerritsen et al. (2022)
Number of District Health Boards that are working toward adoption of the NHFDP^^	3/20	Written nutrition policies from the 20 District Health Boards as part of the comprehensive national evaluation of the implementation of the NHFDP, in 2021.	Gerritsen et al. (2022)

*Green = ‘promotes health’; Orange = ‘needs improvement to promote health’; Red = ‘unhealthy’. For criteria, refer to the Indicator Assessment Criteria at the bottom of the page.

^Foods and beverages were classified as either ‘everyday’ (healthy), ‘sometimes’ and ‘occasional’ (least healthy), using the New Zealand Food and Beverage Classification System (FBCS).

^^The National Healthy Food and Drinks Policy (NHFDP) was published in 2016 and updated in 2019. The NHFDP promotes providing a variety of healthy foods that are mostly whole or less processed, with water and unflavoured milk as the predominant cold drinks. Category-specific guidance is provided in the Policy on the classification of common food and drink products and meals.

Key Recommendations

Schools

We need national, mandated healthy school food policies to improve child and adolescent health and wellbeing, and address inequities.

‘Milk and water only’ regulation should be applied to secondary schools as well as primary schools. This regulation should extend to excluding unhealthy foods.

Hospitals

Adoption of the NHFDP should be mandatory to reduce inconsistencies across the country.
Hospitals should specify a clear plan for implementation, a timeline for evaluation or review of the policy, and a course of action for when the policy is breached.

For more information

Reports

How healthy are New Zealand food environments? 2018 full report

How healthy are Aotearoa New Zealand’s food environments? 2021 Full Report

Articles

D’Souza E, Vandevijvere S, Swinburn B. The healthiness of New Zealand school food environments: a national survey. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. 2022 March 17;46(3): 325-331.

Gerritsen S, Kidd B, Rosin M, Shen S, Mackay S, Te Morenga L, Ni Mhurchu C. 2021 Assessment of New Zealand district health boards’ institutional healthy food and drink policies: the HealthY Policy Evaluation (HYPE) study. NZ Med J. 2022 Aug 19;135(1560):67-76.

Indicator Assessment Criteria
Metric
Proportion of ‘milk and water only’ schools	100%	25 – 99%	< 25%
Proportion of food groups offered for sale in schools that are ‘occasional’	0%	1 – 50%	> 50%
Proportion of schools not using food and beverages for fundraising	100%	25 – 99%	< 25%