If you run a hospital café, a school canteen, or a council facility, you’ve probably been asked to stock “healthier” options. What counts as healthier in most locations is a matter of opinion – but for government and government adjacent facilities – it is not. Most states classify food and drink against a formal framework that sorts products by their nutritional value and sets targets for how many of the healthier options a location has to offer.
Our goal is to make the machine healthier without removing choice altogether. What changes from state to state is the name of the framework, and how strictly the rules apply to settings like health facilities and schools.
Every Vendy machine can be configured to meet the standard for its location and state. The following is a quick guide to each framework, and how we keep your machines compliant.
State regulations
- NSW – Healthy Food and Drink in NSW Health Facilities, alongside the Healthy School Canteen Strategy. Both use the Green/Amber/Red system with targets for how many Green options must be available.
- VIC – Healthy Choices guidelines, applied across hospitals, sport and recreation centres, workplaces, and parks. One of Victoria’s longest-running traffic-light frameworks.
- QLD – A Better Choice, the Healthy Food and Drink Supply Strategy for Queensland Health facilities. Sets a minimum availability of Green choices and a cap on Red.
- WA – Healthy Options WA, the Food and Nutrition Policy applied across WA Health sites using the traffic-light classification.
- SA – Healthy choices guidelines for South Australian health and public settings, built on the same Green/Amber/Red model.
- ACT – Healthy Choices standards for ACT public facilities and schools, aligned to the national traffic-light approach.
- NT – Healthy food and drink guidelines for Northern Territory health services and public settings.
How we manage compliance with Sentry
Sentry is our proprietary vending software, and it is what keeps your machines compliant to these standards – even as they change.
Every product in our range is pre-classified as Green, Amber, or Red against the relevant state framework. When we set up a machine, Sentry builds a product mix that meets the required ratios for your location and state.
Because the classification lives in the software, compliance keeps working after install day. Sentry tracks the mix as products rotate in and out, so the machine stays inside the standard without anyone having to audit it by hand. And if a facility manager or health service ever asks you to prove compliance, we can pull the report to show it.
Tell us the standard you need to meet. Sentry holds the machine to it.
Healthy Selection
Vendy is Australia’s leading healthy vending company. We have over 400 unique SKUs to pick from. Eating healthy shouldn’t be difficult. Eating healthy should be enjoyable. Our team is happy to customise our product mix to best suit the needs of your location and your customers.
Interested? Contact our friendly team on 1300 008 881 or hello@vendy.com.au.