Green Light Program in Melbourne

With the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey showing an increase in obesity in Australia, there are calls to have legislation or mandatory programs to try and control or reduce this trend.

Melbourne City Council has designed the “green light, eat right” program as one way of having the businesses in food courts address this significant health issue.

More than 50% of the food businesses / outlets in the QV Urban Market in Melbourne are running the program as a pilot, as of this month, and is the first time a food court in Australia has taken such an action to help address obesity.

The program uses a traffic light colour scheme to help consumers identify the foods that have the highest nutritional value (green), that can be eaten in moderation (orange), and the others that should only be eaten occasionally (red).

The program was developed in conjunction with Nutrition Australia and includes encouraging the food outlets to use lean meats and low fat dairy foods, and also to cook with healthy oils and increase the use of fruits and vegetables.

The outlets involved receive accreditation and then are awarded a certificate at Gold, Silver or Bronze level based on an assessment of their menus by Nutrition Australia. This program was developed after Melbourne City Council recognised that in some parts of the USA, there is now a legal requirement that chain restaurants must now show the calorie counts of their products on their menus.

The agenda for the Federal Government’s Preventative Health Taskforce includes obesity and what can be done about it, so ideas like requiring calorie counts on menus of chain restaurants and this new “green light, eat right “program will certainly be reviewed as part of that agenda.

For more information about the “green light, eat right “program go to www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/