Hlavní strana ZemĚ Belgie Methodology Step 2 : Recommendations In Belgium 2. 

2. 

Recommendations to the employees (2014)

  • 1 – Taste the food before adding salt.
  • 2 – Lower the use of fat and preferably use vegetal oils.
  • 3 – Eat at least 5 portions of fruit/vegetables per day.
  • 4 – Choose types of cooking that do not add too much fat (steaming, roast, grill, etc.).
  • 5 – I drink 1.5 litres of water a day.
  • 6 – I eat starchy foods for each meal.
  • 7 – I can do without meat some days.
  • 8 – I eat fish once to twice a week.
  • 9 – I eat 2 dairy products a day, low-fat is even better.
  • 10 – I move for at least 30 minutes a day.

Recommendations to the restaurants (2009)

The Belgian partners wished to avoid alienating the restaurants by being too restrictive. They preferred to engage with the restaurants rather than create rules. They decided the recommendations should therefore be short, easy, and practical to implement and verify.

Nine recommendations were formed to complement the recommendations targeted at employees and added to the common European recommendation.

  • 1 – Favour cooking methods such as steam, oven, or grill.
  • 2 – I propose vegetables as accompaniment and fruit as dessert.
  • 3 – I put whole bread on the table.
  • 4 – I do not put salt on the table.
  • 5 – I offer poultry or white meat dishes.
  • 6 – I offer fish on my menu.
  • 7 – I offer tap water on demand.
  • 8 – I replace butter with olive oil to accompany the bread.
  • 9 – I offer a dairy product as dessert.
  • 10 – I replace aperitive biscuits by olives, salad or dried fruits.

Criteria to respect in order to be part of the FOOD restaurants’ network

Following the creation of the FOOD recommendations for restaurants, a network of restaurants respecting a certain number of recommendations was created.

In Belgium, restaurants have to respect the criteria below in order to be part of the FOOD network (since 2014):

Mandatory criteria:

  • vegetables are proposed in most of the dishes and/or are available as a side dish
  • an alternative to greasy carbohydrates is proposed (rise, potatoes or pasta instead of fries, rosti, croquettes)

At least 2 criteria of the 3 following criteria:

  • Un repas végétarien est proposé au menu
  • Les plats sont proposés en portions de tailles différentes
  • Des fruits et des produits laitiers sont proposés en dessert
    To see the map of the entire network of FOOD restaurants, click here: