Adopting and implementing nutrition guidelines in recreational facilities: tensions between public health and corporate profitability

Abstract

Objective: Little is known about how public entities can partner with industry to achieve public health goals. We investigated industry's perspective of factors that influenced their adoption and implementation of voluntary, governmentissued nutrition guidelines (Alberta Nutrition Guidelines for Children and Youth, ANGCY) in recreational facilities. Design: In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Data were analysed using directed content analysis. Setting: Food services in recreational facilities. Subjects: Seven managers from industry participated; five from companies that had adopted and implemented the ANGCY (adopters) in recreational facilities and two from companies that had not (non-adopters). Results: Industry views nutrition guidelines through the lens of profitability. Non-adopters were unwilling to implement the ANGCY for fear of sacrificing short-term profitability, whereas adopters adhered to them in an attempt to position themselves for long-term profitability. Adopters faced barriers including few resources, no training, complex guidelines, low availability of and demand for ANGCY-compliant products, competitive pressures and substantial declines in revenue. Managers believed widespread voluntary adoption of the ANGCY was unlikely without government incentives and/or a mandate, as the environmental context for voluntary action was poor. All managers supported governmentmandated implementation of the ANGCY to level the playing field upon which companies compete. Conclusions: Public-private partnerships in recreational facilities can embrace public health goals in the short term, provided industry perceives potential for long-term financial gain. Widespread uptake of voluntary nutrition guidelines in this setting is unlikely, however, as market mechanisms do not encourage industry to sell and promote healthier options. Government legislation may therefore be warranted.

An Intervention To Enhance the Food Environment in Public Recreation and Sport Settings: A Natural Experiment in British Columbia, Canada

“…Indeed, recreation stakeholders in this study and the pilot study emphasized that change takes time. 12 In interviews, intervention communities reported a number of barriers that may have influenced the amount of change that they were able to achieve in their vending 25 and that are similar to those reported in other studies, 11,12,15,31 including: (1) limited availability of healthy vending machine products; (2) being locked into contracts that did not require vendors to offer healthier choices; (3) unwillingness of vendors to make changes; (4) few suppliers of healthy options; (5) low sales of healthy options; (6) concerns about lower profit margins on healthy products (although sales data were not collected in this study to validate this concern); and (7) limited time to ensure machines contained healthy choices.…”

Modifying the food environment for childhood obesity prevention: challenges and opportunities

“…options in the 'Choose Most Often' category) but continued to allow unhealthy choices to be sold alongside them. According to Olstad et al (59) , this proved to be the most important barrier to the policy's achievement of meaningful change in facility food environments (62) . Observations of children within the facilities examined revealed that they were also still more likely to make unhealthy choices (62) .…”

“…According to Olstad et al (59) , this proved to be the most important barrier to the policy's achievement of meaningful change in facility food environments (62) . Observations of children within the facilities examined revealed that they were also still more likely to make unhealthy choices (62) . Thus, it is clear that the implementation of nutrition guidelines in these settings is complex, that strong government action is required in order for their effect to be gleaned at the population level, and that monitoring and evaluation are essential to support meaningful change in this area (59,61) .…”

The Food Environment of Youth Baseball

“…Olstad and colleagues conducted a series of mixed-methods studies evaluating the adoption of healthy food guidelines in public recreation facilities in Canada, finding difficulties in implementation and acceptance. [27][28][29][30] With the frequency and timing of games and practices, ensuring a healthy environment at sporting events will support the well-being of players and families. Engaging families, coaches, and stakeholders will be an important step in establishing policies to improve the food environment of youth sports.…”