Abstract
The Heartbeat Award (HBA) scheme was launched in England in 1990 by the Health Education Authority (HE A). The HBA is given to a catering establishment if there are “healthy” food choices available, a nonsmoking area, and good standards of food hygiene. This paper describes an evaluation of the customers’ perspectives of the HBA scheme in 11 public eating places. A total of 271 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Just over half of the customers (n = 144; 53%) did not know that the establishment had received the HBA. Even more respondents (n = 183; 67.5%) were unaware of the three main criteria of the award and 224 (82.7%) were unaware that menus had been assessed by a dietitian. Fourteen percent (n = 39) of the sample incorrectly believed that the HBA implied that all food choices were healthy choices.Women and those aged ≥45 years had greater awareness of the HBA scheme. Most customers who knew about the scheme did not choose the establishment because it had a HBA (n = 117; 92.3%). Customers want healthy food choices to be available but this does not influence their choice of establishment. There is a need for greater promotion of the scheme on national and local levels to raise awareness.
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