Worker Food Program: Do Buffet Restaurants Allow Healthy Eating?

Objective: the aim of the study was to propose a measurement instrument to assess healthy food choices in buffets in self-service restaurants. Method: Cross-sectional study with restaurants whose are agreements with the with the Worker's Food Program (WFP)-Brazil, carried out from Dec/2018 to Jan/2019. Stage 1: elaboration and "face validity" of the "Checklist, Friedman test (F), Reliability by Generalization Theory, G coefficient (CG). Step 2: application of the checklist (n= 30 restaurant buffets, sample evaluated by post hoc). Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test and Dunn's multiple comparisons test. Results: Step 1: The Friedman test showed that there was no significant difference in the judges assessment (Pvalue=0.1149, F=12.91). CG of 0.9822, 0.9500 and 0.9468 for interactions: among judges, among restaurant buffets and among food group items evaluated by judges for restaurant buffets. The goodness of fit given by Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) =0.0000 indicated plausibility of the model and the coefficient of determination (R2=1.00), that the model adequately fitted the data. Step 2: After the validation of the checklist, it was applied in restaurants (n=30) and Post hoc test showed power below 0.80 by indicating the absence of external validity. The findings showed that the buffets of self-service restaurants presented both healthy and unhealthy foods in their buffets. Conclusion: The study showed evidence of "face validity" and reliability of the checklist to assess whether foods, food preparations and beverages offered at buffet restaurants self-serve agreement with WFP approximate possible healthy food choices.