Officials rule out legislation on 'healthy' vending machines

Health officials have ruled out using legislation to help improve what people eat at work.

But how the Ministry of Health's two-year monitoring programme of the offerings at workplace cafeterias and vending machines will transform eating habits is still unclear.

"The basis of it really, I think, is the price, the availability and the marketing of food," said deputy director of health Don Matheson.

"If we can encourage changes that then support healthier choices within the price, availability and marketing of food then we'll make a difference,"

After schools, officials have now set their sights on workplaces as a key setting in the battle against the growing obesity problem.

"Certainly there's no intention to legislate," Dr Matheson told National Radio's Nine to Noon programme.

"If we work well with employees, with employers and with industry and with government, I believe we can change this."

Asked if monitoring would result in employers being issued food guidelines, he said, "If there is a demand for them by workplaces, of course we would assist with that. But that's not something we would impose."

Jenny Bratty, workplace health promoter at the Auckland Regional Public Health Service, said the individual had the right to decide what he or she wished to eat but believed employees should also have access to healthy food options.

The service currently delivers the National Heart Foundation's Heartbeat Challenge Programme, which encourages employers to create a workplace environment that is supportive of health and wellbeing.

"In the workplaces we work with to deliver the Heartbeat Challenge Programme, we've found that many employees have been relieved that at last they have a choice," said Ms Bratty.

Healthy choices were easier to make with education, she said.

Herald readers have responded strongly on the issue, with a number in support but a majority in opposition to any Government interference.

Andrew Dowie wrote that the content in vending machines was clearly weighted towards unhealthy foods.

"It is clear that health officials see no other way to address this imbalance other than to intervene by means of legislation.

"I find it difficult to argue with this logic given the omnipresence of obesity, a societal problem which we all have to face one way or another.

"In short, such intervention is called social responsibility."

But Catherine Robinson said the proposal was "outrageous".

"You cannot control what people are going to eat."