To meet the objectives, the FOOD project has created essential channels of communication between the companies and the restaurants using its unique network of contacts through the Ticket Restaurant® solution, following five complementary sets of actions:
An inventory of existing health promotion programmes in the workplace and in restaurants was followed by two questionnaires. The first was a quantitative survey, addressing employees (52,000) and restaurants (5,000) to better understand the project's needs. The second, a qualitative study, was conducted by Dauphine Junior Consulting, conducting 60 interviews in restaurants in 12 countries.
Following a comparative study of the surveys' results, recommendations were made by the partners.
Simple tools were developed, adapted and piloted for restaurants and companies.
Pilots were evaluated.
Following the evaluation, tools were adapted and best practices disseminated.[8]
The partners have decided to continue developing and disseminating the project after the end of the funding period and the support from the European Commission. The partners are motivated to take advantage of the actions, experience and results of the project and create an adaptable programme.
A new consortium agreement linking 23 partners in 8 countries was signed in Brussels on December 14, 2011. The Consortium agreement was renewed first in 2015, and a second time for another 3 years with 28 partners in 10 countries in December 2018.
The programme is meant to be developed with new partners and in new countries.
As part of the evaluation of the European FOOD programme, barometers have been launched every year since 2012 in order to understand and analyse needs and opinions about healthy eating of the two main target groups: employees and restaurants.
Main trends and findings from the 2019 Barometers available here.
Country-by-country figures and analysis since 2012 available on the FOOD EU website.
In October 2009, a double-decker bus customised with the FOOD colours drove through the main cities of the six participating countries, officially launching the communication campaign to the target audiences. The tour enabled the partners, with the collaboration of nutritionists, dietitians and chefs, to explain the FOOD project and to show the first communication tools created. The journey started in Paris and then continued on to Brussels, Stockholm, Prague, and Milan ending in Madrid.[13][14]
Following the wish of the partners to continue the FOOD project by adapting it into a programme, a conference had been organised to mark the transition. The conference was held on 31 May 2011, at the European Parliament, during the Hungarian Presidency of the European Union.[15]
A second conference was organised at the European Parliament in October 2017, entitled New technologies supporting the promotion of healthy eating in the workplace.[16] It gathered 115 participants from the European institutions, the WHO Europe, national Health Ministries, research centres and private companies.
A network of dedicated restaurants that adhere to the national FOOD recommendations was created in the participating countries, thought as the most effective way to reconnect the offer and the demand sides of balanced nutrition. The network is composed of more than 4500 restaurants.[17]
One of the communication tools produced in the framework of the FOOD programme by the Portuguese partners, the Alimentação Inteligente - Coma melhor, poupe mais[18][19][20] book [translation: Smart Food - Eat better, save more], won the Portuguese Food and Nutrition Awards 2013 in the Mobilization Initiative category.[21][22]
The Spanish FOOD Guides for Restaurants and Employees
The Spanish partners of the FOOD programme edited and published two handy Guides: providing healthy and easy cooking/eating tips for both target groups - restaurants and employees.
In 2019, a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Health introduced an itinerant training roadshow for restaurants.[23]
A partnership with Fipe – Italian Federation of Public Exercises, ISS – National Institute of Health and Healthy Cities Network OMS, was presented in Rome. The training sessions aim at sensitizing chefs about healthy and balanced lunch breaks.
Three cooking shows took place in three different Italian locations (Rome, Milan and Palermo), and gathered 250 restaurant owners and chefs.
The events were structured in three different modules:
→ food safety: avoid food contamination
→ nutritional safety: identify a healthy diet and balanced menus during lunch breaks
→ correct management of allergens
Recent awards and recognitions (EU and international)
June 2019: The FOOD programme was awarded a Best practice certificate by the European Commission for its contribution towards promoting Healthy Lifestyles
September 2019: the Belgian Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment (SPF SP) received an award from the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases.
This award recognises the FOOD programme's "outstanding contribution to achieving NCD-related Sustainable Development Goals".[24]
