A chill must be running through the country's snack bar traders this morning, with news that their Surrey brethren will be forced to offer healthy options to their customers.

Guildford Council has reviewed its street traders policy and plans to roll out menu inspections as part of routine hygiene checks – which all means limiting the amount of mayonnaise served and providing at least one healthy option on each menu. For example, traders should consider grilling rather than frying and serving low-fat sausage with wholemeal bread; chilli con carne with lean mince; jacket potato with a selection of fillings.

I can only imagine the incredulous conversations playing out by snack bar hatches around the country, as customers and fryers discuss the council's ideas while their breakfasts sizzle unhealthily in the background. Take one Mr Harris, who runs the Skip's Catering food van from a lay-by on Guildford's A281, talking to the Telegraph:

Our customers are mainly scaffolders, builders and lorry drivers and they are not going to want this new food. The sandwiches and jacket potatoes are more suited to a sandwich bar. The rules seem to be going over the top with political correctness. Some of the things the council is suggesting I serve would cause a bit of a problem - I just can't see people wanting them.

Leaving aside for a moment the fact that sandwiches and baked potatoes are considered "new food", let's ponder for a second what kind of problem may be caused by their inclusion in a menu? Is it a question of storage in small spaces? Or time taken to bake potatoes? Suggestions will be appreciated.

And – oh yes - in the time it takes to cobble together one short report of the new move – surely at least half an hour – calls of political correctness are heard in the Telegraph. Up next, courtesy of the Guardian, will be mutterings about the nanny state.

Any renegade fryers making a stand for fatty sausages will be refused a license when it comes time to renew, says the Telegraph, so you imagine there will be a grudging compliance in Guildford, with perhaps just the occasional lapse in allocated mayonnaise portions but the token baked potato or egg cress sandwich featuring somewhere on the menu and roundly derided by all.

I'm not sure if the Guildford councillors deserve the criticism they are surely going to get though – presumably snack bars, like chippies and burger chains, get a certain amount of school lunch trade. Faced with rising obesity figures and health problems, perhaps the council is responding to calls to limit fast food options and pre-empting the concept of "healthy towns". It doesn't seem such an affront to the business to stick something on the menu that doesn't have to slide around in a slick of oil for 10 minutes, does it?

Will it have any affect at all? Is it sensible? Moves in Guildford will be watched anxiously by spatula wielding servers in snack bars the country over. Or maybe not.

Update, Wednesday November 12, 14:20
Guildford council state on their website today that traders will not be refused a license if they fail to comply with healthy eating guidelines:

Traders are assessed on a number of conditions and no one has or would be closed down or refused a license because they had not complied with guidance on providing healthy options.

Thanks to Technopeasant below for providing the link.