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Thompson is cracking down on unhealthy foods, but it remains to be seen whether its northern Manitoba neighbours follow suit. Thompson city council has approved a policy that will see concession operators and vending machines at city facilities and food service providers at city-run events ensure that at least 30 per cent of their offerings are considered 'healthy choices.' 'Basically it's anything in a vending machine, 30 per cent of those have to be healthy choices, menu items that are offered at a concession have to be 30 per cent healthy choices,' said Bruce Krentz, a health promotions coordinator with the Northern Health Region who sits on Thompson's recreation and community services committee, which developed the policy. Krentz appeared before council prior to the resolution being approved at an Aug. 12 meeting. 'There's also some guidelines limiting portion sizes as we went through this we found that portion sizes are sort of an important thing too when you have a healthy food policy,' he said, 'so when you go to the concession in the arena you can't buy a two-litre jug of Gatorade when you're four years old .' The policy would apply in city facilities like the community centre and pool, as well as at city-led events such as Canada Day or city-organized meetings. It would not apply to groups who rented city facilities for events such as birthday parties. Responsibility for administering the policy and ensuring food service providers abide by it will fall to any member of the city administration. 'If I have a birthday party with my kids, I don't have to follow the guidelines, so we're not going to storm in and say, 'You've got too much pizza and not enough broccoli,'' said Krentz. 'People that rent can do whatever they want. We hope they'll follow them but they don't have to.' Under the policy, concession operators are required to offer non-packaged foods such as fries in small serving sizes, are not allowed to offer super-sized portions and must use oil with no trans-fat for deep frying. The policy would also encompass beverages, meaning that water, low-fat milk and pure fruit juice should be among the beverages on offer, with no bottles larger than 591 ml available and a ban on the sale of energy drinks like Red Bull. Pre-packaged snack foods such as potato chips must have zero trans-fat, contain 15 per cent or less of the recommended daily value of total saturated fats and 15 per cent or less of the recommended daily value of sodium. The pre-packaged snacks would also have to be regular-sized packages, not jumbo or king-sized. The policy also gives consideration to differential pricing, which would see healthy items priced more cheaply than the other items. The beverage and pre-packaged snack requirements will also apply to items sold from vending machines in city facilities and at city events, while meetings organized by the city in other facilities where food was offered would also have to dedicate at least 30 per cent of the offerings to fit within healthy guidelines. _ Thompson Citizen Coun. Penny Byer, who sits on the recreation and community services committee, said the policy is not intended to force people to buy healthier items, but to ensure that they have the option. 'The kind of food that we're most familiar with at the arena concession will still be available,' she said. 'It's just that there'll be smaller sizes and there'll be more options for people who want something different.'
