Almost two-thirds (60%) of employee respondents believe their employer should offer fresh fruit to staff in the workplace, according to research by British Summer Fruits.
Its survey of 2,000 UK employees also found that 78% of respondents do not know who the relevant person to speak to is about introducing healthier food choices to the office environment.
The research also found:
- 52% of respondents work more productively when they eat healthily.
- 81% of respondents find sugary snacks are provided for meetings, with 48% being offered biscuits during meetings compared to 8% who have access to fresh fruit in meetings.
- 50% of respondents eat more unhealthily when they are stressed at work, and 55% feel in a better mood at work when they eat healthily.
- 77% of respondents state that all of the provided meeting room snacks are fizzy drinks, sugary biscuits, and sweets.
- 33% of respondents snack during meetings only because the food is in front of them, and 11% admit to being tempted to overindulge in every meeting due to the food provided.
Kate Cook (pictured), corporate wellness expert, said: “Using sugary food as a reward can create an addictive spiral that wrongly associates sugar with spikes in productivity and hard work.
“In my experience, the [organisations] that have the lowest staff turnover are the ones that really invest in their staff wellbeing, particularly giving them access to great food choices. Enlightened [organisations] are seeing that introducing fresh fruit into the workplace, such as a punnet of berries for breakfast or for snacking on during meetings, leads to improved concentration, productivity, and a reduction in health problems and work absences.”
