Sausage sizzles get grilling from ‘stealthy’ healthy food advocates

THE traditional sausage sizzle fundraiser is being given a healthy makeover as part of a scheme to improve Kiwis’ health.

The Government’s flagship chronic disease prevention programme Healthy Families is trying to convince charities to sell healthier foods, rather than the traditional fried sausages on white bread with tomato sauce.

Healthy Families Christchurch convinced the organisers of a major fun run event to make their sausage sizzle healthier and include healthy food vendors.

Manager Jill Borland said she was trying to improve the city’s health ‘‘by stealth’’.

Family violence support service Aviva, which was the official sausage sizzle provider at the fun run, agreed to replace white bread for wholemeal, use low-sugar tomato sauce, ditch the Margarine and offer coleslaw with each sausage.

Aviva marketing and funding manager Julie McCloy said noone noticed the changes and many even welcomed the coleslaw.

‘‘People love sausage sizzles so if you can make it a little bit healthier, why not?’’

There are 10 Healthy Families initiatives around New Zealand.

Healthy Families Invercargill came up with the ‘‘choice as sizzle’’ initiative as a way to get people talking about healthy changes and demonstrate what Healthy Families was about, communications adviser Nathan Burdon said.

‘‘Sausage sizzles were all over the place and we said what’s a