Companies selling food in NHS hospitals rated for their commitment to healthy eating
The Royal Voluntary Service comes out on top.
Shops, restaurants and catering companies that sell food in NHS hospitals have been rated for their commitment to healthy eating. A new league table ranked high-street brands in order of how well they meet NHS England targets on healthy checkouts, food advertising and price promotions in hospitals. The Royal Voluntary Service comes out top in the Healthy Hospital Food League Table, whilst Subway and Burger King sit at the bottom of the rankings for failing to meet NHS targets for promotion of healthier food.
RVS come top of the league table for meeting all of the NHS England healthy eating targets in advance of the deadline, and gets special recognition for going one step further and rolling out the higher Scottish NHS healthcare retail standard across all 220 RVS shops in English Hospitals by March 2018.
Kate Bull, Executive Director of Retail for Royal Voluntary Service, said: “As a responsible retailer and NHS partner, we are proud to be top of the Healthy Hospital Food League Table as it recognises our commitment to ensuring all of our cafés, shops and trolleys include healthy options to encourage people to eat well.”
Katherine Button from the Campaign for Better Hospital Food said: “It's disappointing that subway and Burger King alone, out of all the major brands serving food in hospitals, are the only two we found not to be working towards NHS England targets on promotion of healthier food. The healthier option should be the easier option in hospitals, and at the moment Subway and Burger King appear to be holding back moves towards a healthier NHS. And through their formal partnerships with hospital caterers, they are also appear to be holding back those caterers from doing better in the Healthy Hospital Food League Table.”
“This league table draws attention to the behaviour of big food brands and holds them to account for failing to ensure they play their part in excluding less healthy food promotions from hospital premises. We applaud the efforts of the Royal Voluntary Service and we’re pleased that so many brands will meet the NHS England targets for healthy food we fought so hard to secure. However, the disappointing lack of engagement from major brands like Subway and Burger King in meeting NHS targets shows there is still work to do.”
Sandwich retailer Subway - who have 12 Subway stores in hospitals - has failed to meet three out of the four targets for promoting healthy food and so flounders at the bottom of the league table with Burger King, which still has one fast-food outlet remaining in Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge. Neither of these brands have cooperated to meet food promotion targets set by this NHS England initiative to make the healthier options the easier option when buying food in hospitals.
At the other end of the league table, encouraging success comes in the form of the high-street bakery Greggs, which commits to meet all the targets early for its single New Cross Hospital shop in Wolverhampton. It is a mixed result for M&S, with 21 hospital stores, who score highly in healthy checkouts but have not committed to the target for healthy price promotions. Meanwhile the newsagent giant WHSmiths, present in 85 English hospitals, did better than expected, committing to meet the NHS England healthy eating targets by March 2017.
In the battle of the sandwich and coffee shops, AMT Coffee just pips Pret a Manger to the top spot for their AMT Coffee shops in Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London. Pret a Manger scores highly for its John Radcliffe Hospital outlet in Oxford, but, despite promoting a healthier food philosophy across most of the shop floor, Pret a Manger was let down by its policy of displaying high-fat baked goods at the till points, which means Pret a Manger won’t be able to meet the healthy checkout target. Costa and Starbucks bring up the rear but told the Campaign for Better Hospital Food they will still aim to meet the March 2017 deadline.
Dr Susannah McWilliam, spokesperson for Food for Life, Soil Association, a supporter of the Campaign for Better Hospital Food, said: “Hospitals retailers now have an important set of targets in the drive to promote healthier food and drink for staff and visitors through NHS England’s Staff Health and Wellbeing CQUIN. The Campaign for Better Hospital Food continues to shine the spotlight on food in hospitals – food that should be supporting good health for all. This new league table celebrates brands that are working hard to meet the new CQUIN targets and will encourage those who are failing to up their game and support healthier food for the 1.3 million members of NHS staff and all others using hospital forecourts.”
Liz Atherton, a dietitian and food policy officer with the public health charity Medact, a supporter of the Campaign for Better Hospital Food, said: “Sixty two per cent of the UK population is overweight or obese, yet up until now food retailers and caterers within the NHS have been able to promote foods high in salt, sugar and saturated fat. Hospitals must not be financially penalised because external food retailers and caterers fail to comply with NHS England targets. Medact fully supports the campaign’s efforts to hold these private organisations to account."
