Australian universities score a fail on healthy food environments

Australian universities are not doing enough to promote healthy and sustainable food environments on campus, a new scorecard reveals.

An assessment of universities by Deakin University's Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition (GLOBE) in the Institute for Health Transformation (IHT), found the nation's tertiary institutions achieved a median score of just 46 out of 100 for their efforts in creating healthy, equitable and sustainable food environments on campus. The top score was 66 out of 100.

GLOBE Co-Director, Professor Gary Sacks, said the results were disappointing given the potential role universities can play in driving social change, including improvements to population and planetary health.

"University campuses have an important influence on the diets of students and staff," Professor Sacks said.

"Historically, they have been some of the first organisations to support young people's health. For example, by implementing policies such as 'smoke-free campuses'.

"Universities are in a position to showcase a healthy and environmentally sustainable environment, and demonstrate the health, environmental and financial benefits of doing so."

Nine universities across Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales opted into the assessment process and received a score out of 100 based on the healthiness, equity and environmental sustainability of their campus food environments.

The assessment was carried out in 2021/2022 and included analysis of: 1) university policies, such as commitments to sustainability and health and funding for action in this area; 2) campus facilities, including campus catering, advertising, events and vending machines; and 3) food outlets, including the types of food on offer and how they are marketed.

"We found some strong examples of universities working to improve their food environments by reducing food packaging, ensuring vending machines only sell healthy food, offering nutrition counselling and creating community gardens but none of these initiatives go far enough to score well on our scorecard," Professor Sacks said.

"Most universities lack comprehensive policies and commitments to make the necessary improvements to their food environments.

"Universities pay a lot of attention to where they rank against each other on research and teaching. These scorecards provide further opportunities to show leadership," Professor Sacks said.

Key recommendations for universities include:

• Limit the availability and marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages (such as sugary drinks) on campus,
• Ensure food retail outlets on campus are contracted to provide healthy and environmentally sustainability foods that are affordably priced,
• Show leadership by ensuring university catering and campus events promote the provision of healthy and environmentally sustainable foods.

Read the full report here.