Sushi hits the spot at steel mill

Dr Rua Ali goes for a salad and fruit lunch at North Shore Hospital's staff cafeteria. Picture / Paul Estcourt

If sushi is good enough for the suit-wearers of Queen St, it's good enough for the steel workers of Glenbrook.

New Zealand Steel says sushi is one of the most popular cafeteria items among the 1200 employees and 200 contractors at its mill southwest of Auckland city.

The Weekend Herald was snooping into cafeterias and vending machines after revealing this week that the Health Ministry sees workplaces as a target in the battle against obesity.

With the help of public health advocates and a Heart Foundation programme, the mill's cafeteria was revamped in February, offering healthier options.

With the workers' new taste for sushi, salads and seafood rolls, demand has dropped for traditional fare like deep-fried lasagne toppers and chips.

The Waitemata District Health Board has also improved its food - initially for staff, but the public cafeterias are expected to follow suit - after earlier removing sugar-filled fizzy drinks.

But yesterday the alluring aroma of freshly fried fish and chips greeted nurses and doctors at lunchtime.

"It's fish-and-chips Friday. It's tradition," said communications manager Bryony Hilless while leading the Weekend Herald on a nutritional tour of North Shore Hospital.

Dr Rula Ali, 27, looked carefully around the staff cafeteria's fare before selecting two pears, a mussel salad and a vegetable salad - no dressing - for lunch.

"I'm very conscious of what I eat so I chose salad and fruit. Today is fish-and-chips day. I try not to get that because I'm health-conscious. There are lots of good sandwiches but they have butter, so I don't choose sandwiches."

In the staff vending machines healthier options such as bottled water and lower-fat potato crisps are put at eye level; king-size confectionary bars have been replaced by smaller ones; and Cookie Time's mega-biscuits have been replaced by a much smaller 80c version.

Deep-fried food used to be available several days a week but now is offered only on Fridays and the range of healthier choices such as salads (with optional dressing) has increased.

Waitemata's manager of nutrition and food services, Vicky Campbell, said it was experimenting at Waitakere Hospital with a vending machine selling items such as sandwiches, prepared meals and fresh fruit for times when the cafe was closed.

The results had been variable because of concerns about the fruit becoming bruised and not being able to easily read the best-before dates on packaging. But pottles of yoghurt and stewed fruit were more popular.

Law firm Chapman Tripp, with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, supplies free fruit to staff, has vending machines and subsidises workers' gym membership.

Employment brand manager Kate Billing said the firm's kitchens cooked and froze heat-and-eat meals, recognising that many of its staff worked late and at weekends.

"We want people to feel they have the option not to have to walk down to [a local burger joint] - it's not that safe around here - we don't want people leaving the building to get unhealthy food and get nobbled."

The firm's chief executive, Alastair Carruthers, said employers had a responsibility to provide healthy options but what people chose to buy could not be controlled.

"I would find it very intrusive for anybody to regulate what we put in our vending machines. I don't think there's anything in our vending machines that isn't available 35 floors below on Albert St [Auckland]."