Restaurant Owners’ Recognition of Health Japan 21 and Implementation Status of the Goal of “Increase the Number of People who Eat Healthy Meals”

Abstract

Objectives: To examine the degree of recognition and utilization of Health Japan 21 among restaurant owners, and the degree of implementation of the goal of increasing the number of people who eat healthy meals, for promoting healthy food environment in cooperation with restaurants.

Methods: In May 2019, the study targeted 412 restaurant owners who are monitors of an internet research company, for recognition and utilization of Health Japan 21. The degrees of implementation of the three goals of "increasing the number of people eating a combination of staple food, main dish and side dish", "decreasing salt intake", and "increasing vegetable and fruit intake" were assigned scores, which were compared based on the demographics of the respondents and stores, and the response to "recognition and utilization of Health Japan 21" using the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test.

Results: Eliminating 25 respondents who had provided menus only for special days, the data of 387 respondents (response rate 93.9%) were analyzed. Of these, 237 (61.2%) answered that they had never heard of Health Japan 21, and the score indicating the degree of implementation of the goals was low among them (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the scores of fast-food restaurants and small businesses were low (p = 0.002, p = 0.007, respectively).

Conclusion: The degree of recognition of Health Japan 21 was low among restaurant owners and the implementation status of the goals was also low. It is necessary to consider ways to raise awareness of Health Japan 21 for promoting collaboration with the food service industry.