Designing an Audit Tool to Evaluate the National Healthy Food and Drink Policy: The HYPE Study

The National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP) was developed to promote healthy food environments for the New Zealand District Health Board (DHB) staff and visitors. The policy classifies food and drinks as red, amber, or green and sets benchmarks for the proportions of red, amber, and green foods that should be available on-site. The HYPE (Healthy Policy Evaluation) study is the first national evaluation of the implementation and impact of the NHFDP. We designed an electronic audit tool to collect detailed food and drink data across a range of food settings (vending machines and all food outlets) at New Zealand DHBs and some government agencies. The electronic audit tool collects all the information required to classify food and drinks under the NHFDP (photographs of foods and drinks, item weight/volume, energy and nutrient content, ingredient composition, and Health Star Rating). The web-based tool was created using Drupal (web content management framework) and pilot tested. The tool is now in use by the HYPE team in DHBs across New Zealand. Data collection commenced in March 2021 and has been completed for nine DHBs (5700 products) so far. Audit results detailing the proportion of red, amber, and green food items available at all participating institutions will be available in late 2022. Ongoing stakeholder feedback and requirements have been incorporated throughout the design process and used to improve the audit tool. This feedback has informed key lessons such as agreeing the tool’s aims and objectives collectively with stakeholders/potential end users, pilot testing the tool prior to use, and ensuring the tool is simple and accessible for all end-users. This new electronic food setting audit tool has successfully facilitated comprehensive and standardised data collection across a range of retail settings.