Introduction

Eating out has been identified as one of associated factors to the emergence of noncommunicable diseases, which is a global public health problem. In this context, the present study identified how restaurants promote healthy eating.

Material and Methods

Qualitative study that adopted a case study approach. The research included 68 establishments part of the Top 100 restaurants with the highest sales in Colombia, located in the capital city. Observations and documentary review of contents exposed by restaurants on their website, official social networks and web menu were look at between April 2016 and February 2017. The analysis of the information was done for attributes in Epiinfo 7.2 and for information categorized with the Program Nvivo 11.0.

Results

Eight of the 68 restaurants declared the development of healthy eating initiatives as part of their business concept; nevertheless, other 25 establishment also implemented actions in the subject. According to the findings, restaurants promoted healthy eating through the supply of vegetables, or through messages on social networks, promoting their healthy menu items.

Conclusions

It would be beneficial a more comprehensive approach to promote healthy eating at restaurants. This not only for the food offering, but also for those mechanisms that persuade healthy choices, because few results on strategies of prices, campaigns or nutritional information were found. The results contribute to recognize characteristics of Colombian food environments, given the poor information on this and the need to work on this topic with the restaurant sector.

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