Advertisement

Subway and Burger King ranked lowest for efforts to meet hospital healthy eating targets

image

Subway and Burger King have come bottom of a table rating how well food retailers in hospitals are meeting healthy eating targets laid down by NHS England.

The Campaign for Better Hospital Food has rated firms like Costa, Starbucks and Subway for their commitment to improving the range of healthy food they offer patients, staff and visitors.

Subway and Burger King are at the bottom of the league table, while the Royal Voluntary Service comes out top.

Katherine Button, from the Campaign for Better Hospital Food, said: “It’s disappointing that Subway and Burger King alone out of all the major brands serving food in hospitals are the only two we found not to be working towards NHS England targets on promotion of healthier food.

"The healthier option should be the easier option in hospitals, and at the moment Subway and Burger King appear to be holding back moves towards a healthier NHS.”

image

Hospitals - the table looked at food retailers in hospitals (Picture: PA)

NHS England has set targets for healthier checkouts by March, together with targets on food advertising and price promotions.

According to the rankings, Subway - which has 12 outlets in hospitals - has failed to commit to or meet three out of the four targets for promoting healthy food.

MORE: Ryanair passenger who couldn’t board because he was hospitalised says they won’t give him a refund
MORE: Great-granddad dies at exact time and date as he was born 103 years before

A statement from Subway said it was “disappointed that the survey does not recognise the commitment that the Subway brand has made in offering our customers a healthier on-the-go choice”.

“For example, in the Subway £3 lunch, five out of the nine standard build subs available in all stores across the UK, including in our hospital stores, are from the low fat range.

image

Targets - NHS England has set targets on healthier checkouts, food advertising and price promotions (Picture: Getty)

A spokesman for NHS England said: "We’ve had a fantastic response so far from many hospital suppliers and outlets to the healthy changes we’re aiming to make in hospitals to offer a healthier selection of options.

"We have committed an incentive for Trusts to make these changes and want food suppliers to help them achieve their share as far as they can by making the relevant changes on their shelves.

"We will continue to have constructive discussions to ensure the changes are made by March 2017.”

(Top picture: Getty)