CLEVELAND—Customers at the Cleveland Clinic have an easier way to eat healthy. At several of the hospital system’s retail locations, a brand of healthy foods, called Go Foods, is now available.
“For the last year we have been working with the Cleveland Clinic on Go Foods,” said Nathan Cristino, regional director for AVI Foodsystems at the account. “Go Foods are geared to be something that people can grab and go pretty quickly. It’s called Go Foods because we wanted to sell a brand of something that someone could take with them. It’s something that is really simple and prepared as opposed to something that they have to make at home. As opposed to having a recipe there to give to somebody, the food is already there and it’s already healthy and prepared and ready to go for them.”
To be considered Go Foods, the menu item must meet certain criteria, including: four grams or less of saturated fat, four grams or less of added sugars or syrups, 600 milligrams or less of sodium, zero grams trans fats and, if the items is a bread , must be 100% whole grain. If a menu item meets these criteria, a Go Foods sticker is placed on the item to signify it meets the system’s requirements for a healthy food option.
Cristino said some of the smaller retail locations have grab-and-go coolers and kiosks but in the larger locations there are Go Foods stations where hot food is offered on a two-week cycle menu. Go Foods items include salads, fresh-squeezed juices and yogurt in the coolers and meatloaf, maple-glazed salmon and crepes.
The system partnered with Heinen’s, a local grocery store chain, to offer Go Foods. The items offered at the Heinen’s locations are different from the items offered at the Cleveland Clinic, but all items must meet the criteria.
“The great part about the Go Foods program is you get a whole meal,” Crisino said. “It’s not just individual items. So with the salmon there is a side of a healthy vegetable that goes with it and then they can get a Go Foods cookie or piece of fruit for dessert. So they get a whole Go Foods meal that they can take with them, which is compliant within the standard.”
Crisino said about 10% of the items available in his retail locations are Go Foods and that the items are priced at, or in some cases below, the cost of non Go Foods items.
“I have seen an increase in the amount of people purchasing Go Foods,” Cristino said. “It takes time to change the mindset that burgers and fries are a thing of the past and a healthy dish is the thing that the Clinic wants. We want our staff to be healthy.
“We have a maple-glazed salmon that flies off the shelves, and I can’t keep enough in stock. We have a meatloaf, which is pretty good, but some people look at the portion and go, that’s not really what I’m looking for. Changing the mindset is something that the Clinic has worked diligently on to make sure that people understand what Go Foods are and what healthy dishes actually mean. The Clinic has bought into what we are doing and they are the driving force behind it. The great part about the Clinic is they offer free fitness classes for their members, Weight Watchers and they do healthy cooking demonstrations in coordination with us. So what they believe is what we execute in our cafés.”
Cristino said the foodservice department does a rooftop demonstration every two weeks to show people what a healthy meal consists of and how it can be prepared at home. He added that the department offers healthy cooking demonstrations for any other hospital department upon request.
“It took about 15 weeks of sampling and going through certain criteria because the guidelines are very stringent,” Cristino said. “It’s difficult to meet some of those criteria and also make it so that someone wants to eat it.”