Family eating out-of-home: a review of nutrition and health policies

Abstract

Childhood obesity is a growing problem worldwide. In recent years, out-of-home (OH) eating has been highlighted as one of the many factors contributing to the obesogenic environment. This review seeks to identify a range of existing guidelines for the provision of healthy food options for families who eat OH frequently. Nationally available nutrition policies were identified using targeted and untargeted searches of the internet to identify established strategies for providing food for children in the family eating out sector in America (US), Australia, Canada and the WHO's European Region (EUR). These were categorised on the basis of eleven predefined criteria including: family eating out sector included as stakeholder; inclusion of children's food OH; cost strategies for healthier food choices; provision of nutrition information for customers; nutrition training of catering staff; and monitoring and evaluation structures. Fifty-five policies were reviewed, of which 71 % addressed children's food served OH, but principally only for food available in schools. Two voluntary programmes, from Colorado and Slovenia, were identified as possible best practice models as they met a majority of the evaluation criteria. The most frequently used strategy by policies to promote healthier eating OH was the provision of nutrition information on menus, while monitoring and evaluation plans were poorly incorporated into any OH strategies, thus raising issues about their effectiveness. This review has identified a range of initiatives that could be employed to make healthier eating OH more accessible for families. However, to establish best practice guidelines for healthier OH food choices further investigations are required.

Can policy ameliorate socioeconomic inequities in obesity and obesity‐related behaviours? A systematic review of the impact of universal policies on adults and children

“…Compared with individually targeted interventions, population‐level policy can offer larger and more sustained benefits for population health and at a lower cost to society . At present, however, very few obesity‐related policies have been enacted, and among those in place, many rely strongly on individual agency . Our findings may help to partially allay concerns that current policies may be widening inequities simply because they tend towards the agentic side of the policy spectrum.…”

Parent and child perspectives on family out-of-home eating: a qualitative analysis

“…For this purpose, family OH eating has been defined as any food or beverage that has been cooked outside the family home for a family to eat together, including takeaways but not including ready meals purchased in a supermarket (35) .…”

Meal habits and metabolic status in Southern Italian adults

“…This information suggest that out-of-home eating does not entirely cluster with unhealthy behaviors or low socio-cultural level, but rather may be affected by low quality or excessive energy intake consequent to restaurant eating, which in turn may be related to unhealthy outcomes. This group of individuals may mostly benefit by rise in knowledge about how to eat out of home, while the food offer to the public might include healthier proposals which should combine palatability and affordable prices [59].…”