Reported foodservice environmental sustainability practices in Australian healthcare and aged care services pre and post the onset of COVID-19

Healthcare foodservices substantially impact global environmental changes. This study investigated environmentally sustainable practices in Australian health foodservices; and perceptions of the influence of COVID-19 on foodservice environmental sustainability. An observational study was undertaken collecting data at two time points (2019 and 2022) via a pre-workshop survey with healthcare foodservice stakeholders. The survey used rating scales and free text options to explore sustainable practices, perceived barriers and enablers to sustainable practices, and a free-text response on the impact of COVID-19. Analysis included independent samples t-tests (continuous, normally distributed), Mann-Whitney U tests (continuous non-normally distributed data), and Pearson chi-squared tests (categorical data). A qualitative analysis of free text responses to a single question about the impact of COVID-19 was used to identify, analyse, and report positive and negative aspects of COVID-19 for sustainable foodservice practices. Demographic and employment characteristics were similar between timepoints n = 37 (2019) and n = 30 (2022), except for number who had attended sustainability training (n = 14, 38.8% vs n = 19, 63.3%; p = 0.038). There were fewer private hospital (n = 6, 16.2% vs n = 0), (0%) and more rural site representation in 2022 (n = 2, 5.4% vs n = 13, 43.3%; p