Implementing the HSE Policy on Calorie Posting in staff canteens with external catering provider

Calorie posting is a behaviour change intervention adopted in the fight against obesity. In 2014 the HSE commenced the development of a Policy on Calorie Posting. This project implemented calorie posting in two HSE canteens working with a large scale external catering provider. The scope of this project was not to determine should calorie posting be implemented but rather to implement and make recommendations for the development of the policy and inform the national HSE implementation. The literature was reviewed to assess the effectiveness of calorie posting and to identify the most effective manner of implementing. The implementation of calorie posting provides an ideal opportunity for the HSE to lead by example in developing a healthy workplace environment, while delivering a healthy message not alone to approximately 100,000 staff who avail of these services but to the many millions of people who also visit these settings as visitors or outpatients. The project delivered a very successful implementation and identified recommendations to support the full implementation in the HSE. 34% of staff indicated that calorie posting had caused them to make a change when selecting their food and beverages. This project demonstrated that calorie posting is more than a technical project and can achieve behaviour change to reduce obesity and can therefore be referred to as a behaviour change project that should focus on the people aspect of change and include a “calorie” awareness information campaign