Healthier Restaurant Cuisine Programme

Article courtesy of the Health Promotion Board.

The Healthier Restaurant Cuisine Programme helps you to select healthy restaurants for your dining pleasure. Read on to find out more.

The Healthier Restaurant Cuisine Programme (HRCP) aims to encourage restaurants to provide healthier choices as part of their existing menus, and to monitor compliance of these foods with catering guidelines.

An integrated approach was adopted to target at the restaurateurs, chefs and service staff. In May 2003, the Health Promotion Board (HPB), together with the Restaurant Association of Singapore and Singapore Hotel Association, invited chinese restaurateurs to develop a set of catering guidelines for Chinese cuisine and promote healthy menus. A set of reference materials were also developed to help standardise the process of certification and monitoring.

In June 2003, 75 restaurants were invited to attend a culinary training workshop conducted by renowned chefs and HPB nutritionists. The culinary standards illustrated at the workshop were specific and appropriate for each menu category namely, soup, fish, seafood, chicken, meat, bean curd, vegetables, rice/noodles and desserts.

The restaurants were encouraged to provide two healthy dishes from each menu category that contain lower fat/salt/sugar and more vegetables/fruit. All dishes from the ala carte menu must also contain less oil and salt. This workshop was subsequently followed by an on-site visit by HPB nutritionists, who provided further assistance to the chefs and monitor the suitability of the modifications made.

A total of 50 restaurants met specified culinary and service standards and were certified as approved restaurants by HPB in September 2003. The service staff have also been trained to promote the healthy dishes and encourage patrons to place orders on them. A month later, HPB nutritionists made another visit to the restaurants to assess the quality of food served and service standards of the service staff. On-site feedback was given to restaurants to make immediate improvements. A final visit was conducted in March this year.

Those interested can ask for the “Chef’s Healthier Recommendations” when visiting the restaurants. This is a red menu (see diagram) with the 18 healthier dishes. The symbol on the cover is a red circle with a pyramid in it.

So, before you dine out, visit the HPB’s website www.hpb.gov.sg for our list of healthier restaurants.