Calorie Posting in
Letterkenny General
Hospital
Pilot Study
Background
 Research
indicates that Calorie Posting can
bring modest behaviour changes.
 HSE
Policy
 National
2
Expert Group
Calorie Posting Pilot Sites

Support from hospital management

Established a working group

Identified a project Manager

Identified a project Lead
Calorie Posting Group at LGH

Peter Byrne (Facilities Manager)

Marie Mc Kervey (Deputy Catering Manager)

Rita Mc Elhinney (Production Manager)

Christine Wallace (Dining Room Supervisor)

Sharon Patton (Dietitian)
Two Nutritional students joined the LGH Calorie Posting Implementation
Team to support role out of pilot.

Gillian O Brien (Bsc Health Science & Nutrition, 4th year student at
AIT)

Holly Courtney (Bsc Health Science & Nutrition, 4th year student at
AIT)
Objective of the Working Group
The working group was established to
provide guidance and support to the
implementation of Calorie Posting within
LGH.
Function of Working Group

Set timeframes and goals.

Presentation given to all catering staff on calorie
posting.

Built awareness of calorie posting.

Allowed sufficient resources.

Trained staff and encouraged staff buy in.

Communication with visitors.
Calorie Posting

Dietitian Manager trained AIT students on
menucal.

Production Manager provided recipes.

Suppliers contacted to source information on
calories. A good response from suppliers.

Students assessed recipes and ingredients and
input data.

Recipes checked for yield, portion size and calorie
value of each portion.
Monitor Progress & Outcomes
Monitored purchasing trends both before and
during the pilot.
 Till adjusted to reflect what people were
purchasing.
 Volume of sales pre calorie posting.
 Volume of sales post calorie posting.
 Survey with visitors and staff to ask feed back on
pilot.

Staff Awareness

Staff received training on standardising portions and using correct utensils for
correct portion.

Calorie information displayed clearly, per portion or meal, at the ‘point of
choice’ for the customer.

Recommended daily calories for men, women and children displayed in the
restaurant.
Our Role in the Calorie Posting Pilot

Carried out an Evaluation of the Breakfast Calorie Posting Pilot.

Our objective: To observe the effect of calorie posting on consumer
behaviour.

Focused on Mondays (Beginning of the week) and Fridays (Busiest day
in the dining room).

Became members of Hospital Implementation Team.
Method of Evaluation

Analysed daily till receipts.

Collected data for each breakfast food item purchased. i.e. Amount of
sausages sold

Produced individual reports for each food group showing their trends
from pre-calorie posting to post-calorie posting.

October’s receipts represented the baseline turnover.
Graph 1 Low Fat Yoghurts
Graph 2 Cheese slice
Graph 3 Bacon
High Level Outcomes

The calorie posting of the breakfast foods had only shown a change on
consumer purchasing for the first week of calorie posting.

The longer term behavioural change becomes more diluted as the
pilot moves from its implementation date.

Fridays primarily showed the most changes in particular the cooked
breakfast foods.

Seasonal and holiday periods affected the sales of breakfast foods.
The decrease in food sales was not as a result of the calorie posting
but rather a decrease in the volume of customers in the dining room.
Recommendations For Next Phase
Lunch & Tea Calorie Posting

Extend the baseline audit from one month to three months.

Standardised data collection; individualise each food item on till for
data collection consistency.

Attempt to record the number of people entering the dining room.

Choose appropriate time of year that avoids long holiday periods.