THE EFFECT OF A WORKSITE CAFETERIA PROGRAM ON EMPLOYEES DIETARY-FAT INTAKES

The objective of this study was to determine changes in dietary fat in takes among employees of a worksite offering a lower fat lunch program . The cafeteria lunch program was based on Rotter life Menus, develope d by the Community Health Department of the lakeshore General Hospital in suburban Montreal, and consisted of: 1) modifying recipes to conta in no more than 30% energy from fat with 10% energy from saturated fat ; 2) making available lower fat dairy, meat, poultry, and fish product s; 3) decreasing the portion sizes of meet, poultry, and fish, and 4) using polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats for sautes, salad dressi ngs, and cooking. A quasi-experimental pretest post-test non-equivalen t control group design was used: one worksite (n=200) received the pro gram and two other worksites served as controls (n=200). Overall, 160 employees completed the pretest questionnaire and a 24-hour dietary re call at baseline and 93 completed the post-test 12 months later. Respo ndents were primarily men, French speaking, blue collar workers. Among regular clients (employees who purchased their lunch at the cafeteria two or more times a week) exposed to the lower fat lunch program, sat urated fat intake decreased from 16% of total energy to 13% (P less th an or equal to 0.05), protein intake decreased from 18% to 15% (P less than or equal to 0.05), and carbohydrate intake increased from 41% to 48% (P less than or equal to 0.05); no significant changes were found in the control group. No changes in dietary intakes were found among infrequent clients (those who purchased their lunch less than two time s a week). Cafeteria changes ton have an impact on some employees' die tary behaviors; however, prevention programs should consider other env ironmental and educational strategies in order to ensure that the enti re worksite population is reached.