Sturt campus is improving the nutrition profile of its cafe offerings thanks to a holistic nutrition approach introduced by third-year nutrition students Amber Stattin and Lauren Breese, working with The Daily Kitchen Co.

This journey of nutritional improvement started in 2021, when Independent Studies Project (ISP) Nutrition students conducted an audit of the Flinders University food environment. Using the Uni-Food Tool, they benchmarked the health, equity and environmental sustainability of food being sold. Results from this audit showed that although most retailers provided some level of signage to identify foods that met dietary requirements (such as gluten-free or vegan), no food retailers provided detailed in-store interpretive nutrition information, such as Health Star Ratings or traffic light labels.

This year, Kristian McPherson and Alex Bastian, owners of The Daily Kitchen Co, welcomed ISP Nutrition students to assess their menu during Semester 1. Each food item was rated using the traffic light system that records levels of nutrients including fat, sugar and salt in each of the foods – with green representing healthy food and red being unhealthy, while amber sits in between.

Increasing healthy choices in a café needs to consider the existing food preferences and behaviours of customers, as well as the profitability of the business, so Amber and Lauren worked with Kristian and Alex to:

• Ensure more menu items were moved away from the RED category.
• Provide more healthy GREEN choices.
• Positively adjust the recipes of some customer favourites: breakfast burrito, chicken ranch sandwich and yoghurt pots.

Promoting healthy food choices also requires clear communication so that customers have adequate information to make informed decisions. This part of the project involved clearly identifying the traffic light status of food items, with green items marked with a green sticker. Promotions and layout changes in the Sturt cafe were introduced, to place healthy foods at eye level and in easily-accessed locations, and healthy breakfast and lunch bundles were introduced so that customers could easily choose a complete healthy meal.

Menu changes were introduced after the mid-semester break, giving customers time to familiarise themselves with menu and layout changes before responding to the changes via a survey, which is accessible via QR code in the cafe.

To complete this project, Amber and Lauren will analyse the survey and sales data for various food categories. While this forms part of Amber and Lauren’s final Independent Studies Project assignment, Kristian and Alex will also assess the final results to help guide their café further towards a healthy eating environment.

Amber and Lauren’s work on this project has been supported by Carolyn Dent, Course Coordinator and Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics (CNHS), The Daily Kitchen Co and Rachael Pollock, Manager of Retail and Placemaking.