National Nutrition Week | "Guidelines for the Construction of Nutritious and Healthy Restaurants" - Promote the dietary civilization of the whole society

A balanced diet is the basis of health!

In order to integrate the concept of "adhering to the people's health as the center" into the whole process of public policy formulation and implementation, the Office of the Healthy China Action Promotion Committee has formulated and issued the "Guidelines for the Construction of Nutritional and Healthy Restaurants" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines") as an important part of the 2020 Rational Diet Action. Entrusted by the National Health Commission, the Chinese Nutrition Society took the lead and jointly drafted the "Guidelines" with the Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Federation of Chinese Restaurants, the China Cuisine Association and the China Yinghui Nutrition and Health Research Institute; the National Nutrition and Health Steering Committee issued it in December 2020.

From what specific aspects does the guideline guide the catering industry to improve nutrition and health awareness and service levels? What expectations can consumers have for nutritious and healthy restaurants? Let's take a look!

The Guidelines are intended to encourage and guide catering service operators to achieve a transformation and upgrade in nutrition and health with the goal of reasonable diet, "three reductions" and eliminating waste. The Guidelines stipulate the requirements for building a nutritious and healthy restaurant from six aspects: basic conditions, organizational management, personnel training and assessment, creating a nutritious and healthy environment, cooking and meal preparation, and meal service.

1. Basic conditions

There are 9 basic conditions in total, which are the prerequisites for building a nutritious and healthy restaurant, covering business license, food safety assurance, nutrition guidance staffing, nutrition labeling in accordance with the "Guidelines for Nutrition Labeling of Catering Foods", prevention and resistance to food waste, etc.

The "Guidelines for Nutrition Labeling of Catering Foods" stipulates that the basic labeling content is "energy, fat, sodium content and the amount of salt equivalent to sodium", and encourages the optional labeling of information such as protein, carbohydrates, sugar, minerals and vitamins according to the characteristics of the dishes.

The "China Urban Catering Food Waste Report" shows that about 12% of food is wasted on the dining table in my country each year, and 38% is wasted at large gatherings. To eliminate food waste, the whole society needs to have a common understanding and action. Therefore, the "Guidelines" emphasize that "establishing a system to prevent and resist food waste, and taking measures to implement it" is one of the basic conditions for building nutritious and healthy restaurants.

2. Specific measures and requirements

The "Guidelines" put forward targeted measures around reasonable diet, "three reductions" and eliminating waste.

Regarding reasonable diet, the Guidelines stipulate that restaurants should be equipped with qualified full-time (part-time) nutrition instructors. Various forms should be adopted to publicize policies and popular science knowledge such as reasonable diet, "three reductions", and prevention and treatment of nutrition-related chronic diseases, so as to create a nutritious and healthy dining atmosphere. A sound raw material procurement system should be established to ensure that the ingredients used are rich in variety and fresh, and the use of pickled, cured and animal fat ingredients should be reduced. The Guidelines also put forward detailed requirements for restaurants to achieve food diversity, reasonable diet matching and cooking techniques; encourage the introduction of dishes suitable for special groups such as the elderly, children, obese people, people with hypertension, and people with diabetes, and describe and explain the nutritional characteristics.

Focusing on the "three reductions", restaurants are required to establish a salt, oil and sugar usage registration system and conduct per capita consumption statistics to gradually reduce the amount of salt, oil and sugar used in dishes and per capita salt, oil and sugar intake. Restaurant managers, nutrition instructors and chefs are regularly organized to receive nutrition and health knowledge including the "three reductions" and skills training on prevention and control of infectious diseases.

Increase the proportion of low-salt, low-fat, and low-sugar dishes in the menu and clearly mark them. When providing homemade drinks or desserts, the added sugar content should be indicated. In order to eliminate waste, in addition to being one of the basic conditions, the "Guidelines" require that waiters should guide consumers to implement the "Clean Plate" campaign during meal service, and encourage the active sale of small or half-portion dishes, economical meal packages, etc.

3. Implementation significance

For consumers, where can they find the "nutritious and healthy restaurants" they like that meet the requirements of the Guidelines? Under the guidance of the Food Safety and Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the National Health Commission, pilot demonstration projects for the construction of nutritious and healthy restaurants have been gradually rolled out across the country, and local governments have improved implementation strategies based on local characteristics. It is believed that soon, consumers will be able to see "identity restaurants" that meet the Guidelines in various provinces and regions.

In fact, international experience has also shown that promoting nutrition and health, especially educating and guiding scientific nutrition diet and healthy diet in public restaurants and canteens, as well as building a social environment, are effective means to guide a reasonable diet and improve the health level of the people. Therefore, through the demonstration window of nutrition and health restaurants, providing nutritious and healthy dishes to consumers, especially the numerous diners, and conveying correct nutrition knowledge and behavior is an important measure to accelerate the joint promotion of reasonable diet actions by the whole society!

Author: Wang Yingyao | Deputy Secretary-General and Researcher of Chinese Nutrition Society

Reviewer: Ding Gangqiang | Director of the Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention