Goodbye choc top as cinema food gets healthy

It's a poignant on-screen moment in the hushed cinema, the movie audience holding its collective breath. And then - someone opens a packet of chips.

But while the crunch of potato chips, rolling of jaffas and the buttery smell of high cholesterol popcorn used to be as much part of seeing a movie as standing for the national anthem, changing tastes and food sensitivities have arrived at the candy bar.

Healthy food and moviegoing may seem unlikely bedfellows, but it had to happen as gourmet, gluten free, nut free, vegan and just plain healthy food options have become, if not mainstream, then at least sought-after.

Moviegoers are turning their backs on rock-hard commercial choc tops and yesteryear favourites Fantales and Minties. Instead, a night at the cinema can include savouring a gluten-free, almond meal orange cake, devouring a cheeseboard with quince paste and dried figs, crunching olive oil popcorn, nibbling tapas or raw chocolate.

Even at the multiplex, there is a move to healthier options: ''Over the years, cinema has offered healthier alternatives such as air-popped corn, fruit and nut bars, sandwiches and wraps, fresh juice and fruit,'' says a Village Cinemas spokesman.

But customers did not want them. Now, though, that is changing, with a shift to healthier options, for example, water included in combos and kids' combos with juice and smaller portions, he says.

Customers favour premium ice-creams and chocolates and Village's Gold Class cinemas have vegetarian, gluten-free and nut allergy menu options.

''Our cinemas are all different, all with their own menus,'' says Benjamin Zeccola, chief executive officer of Palace Cinemas, with 19 cinemas nationwide. So while Melbourne's Westgarth caters to numerous food intolerance requests - wheat, dairy, nuts, especially in children - and offers vegan cupcakes and wheat-free packaged lollies, Palace Barracks in Brisbane has seen a huge upsurge in gluten-free food requests recently. Offerings include three flourless cake and pastry options and a feta and chicken sandwich on gluten-free bread.

A cheeseboard is on offer at the Electric in Canberra, panini, dips and cheese at Melbourne's Como, frittata at the Verona in Sydney and Kino in Melbourne, while taking a drink into the movies is encouraged, with prosecco ''huge'' at all Palace Cinemas, Zeccola says.

At Sydney's Norton Street the favourite Connoisseur choc tops, made on site, are cookies and cream and caramel honey macadamia, while Melbourne's Brighton loves boysenberry and the Kino audience opts for Murray River salted caramel.

Decisions about what is introduced are made at the Melbourne head office, in consultation with the state managers. That includes responding to complaints about food noise and smells: ''We have acquired wooden bowls for all the cinemas and will pour the chips into the bowl at the bar and that gets rid of all the foil or plastic crackling,'' Zeccola says.

Kristian Connelly, general manager of Melbourne's Cinema Nova complex, says it accommodates its food to the lifestyle choices of its ''socially aware'' audiences. Hence more vegan offerings such as Zebra Dream vegan ice cream and raw chocolate. It offers high teas and tapas menus in its Nova Deluxe - one third of the items are vegan or gluten-free or both - and tapas boards in its standard cinemas, has snacks such as rice crackers, smoked almonds, muesli bars, wasabi peas and yoghurt.