Food at Work: Workplace Solutions for Malnutrition and Chronic Diseases.

Food at Work. Workplace Solutions for Malnutrition and Chronic Disease

Wanjek C. International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 2005, 448 pages, $60.00 Swiss Francs, ISBN 92-2-117015-2

Food at work has not I think been a special interest of nutritionists and dietitians in Australasia. The 1979 edition of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (the 600-page British textbook) had one-third of a page on industrial canteens, but contemporary nutrition books do not seem to mention them.

So arrival of this book for reviews was a pleasant surprise. The dust cover has an amazing photograph of building workers sitting on a bare steel beam, hundreds of feet above New York eating their lunch. The single author (who writes on health and science for the Washington Post) has written introductory chapters on history and economics of work place nutrition (and the cost to employers if their workers are poorly nourished) and an admirable overview of nutrition, written to inform managers and based on WHO sources.

The large middle section contains examples of good or interesting practice from 49 different countries. Some describe canteens or cafeterias, others are about meal vouchers, mess rooms, local vendors, solutions for families and clean drinking water. Each example gets four or five pages, some with pictures. All are presented in a systematic way: description of the company, food solution, possible disadvantages, costs and benefits to the enterprise, government incentives, practical, aspects, union/employee perspective. Australia is represented by Phosphate Hill at Duchess (140 km south of Mt Isa) said to be the most remote chemical plant in the world. All the meals of the 380-600 workers are provided for them, breakfast and dinner at the canteen and a packed lunch in clean rooms near the mine. Work shifts are 12 hours, day and night, starting at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Some of the workers are of Aboriginal descent. Management are concerned about their susceptibility to diabetes and kidney disease and about the increasing body mass index in Australian men. They provide low-fat and vegetarian options. Researchers from James Cook University have been assessing and advising on health and nutritional wellbeing of the workers.

There is a full-time nutritionist and two lifestyle coordinators who organise recreational exercise. The workers health and safety committee said that the company does an excellent job, providing a variety of healthy and tasty food while keeping freedom of choice. Some joked about eating more healthily at work than at home. This is just one of the 49 examples of food at work. Most workers are not as confined to the workplace as Phosphate Hill but throughout in these examples management have been striving, often with professional advice, for nutritious and hygienic food for their workers--and often their families too.

The third section has checklists and sets out international standards, policies and programmes, then there are Conclusions, summing up what has emerged from all the examples. An appendix briefly describes the nutrients at the level, as in the rest of the book, of the educated general reader.

This is a beautifully designed, written and printed book and would have to be consulted by anyone advising on food at work anywhere in the world. The International Labour Office deserves congratulations for publishing such a unique and reader-friendly contribution to good nutrition.

A. Stewart Truswell

Emeritus Professor of Human Nutrition

University of Sydney