Listings of calorie counts for food sold in takeaways, restaurants and canteens will be tried within six months in the latest move to tackle Britain's mounting obesity crisis, the government's Food Standards Agency said yesterday.
It is seeking volunteer companies to pioneer listings of food energy content on menu boards and menus, and believes the rest of the industry will quickly follow suit once a standardised simple guide is agreed under the scheme, which will not be backed by legislation.
Men in Britain now get a quarter of their food energy intake outside the home, while women get 21%. A number of chains, including KFC, Starbucks and McDonald's, already offer nutritional information on websites or leaflets, but now the catering industry will be expected to go far further. Officials at the agency hinted that if the calorie counting was a success, the drive for information could see an extension of the traffic light scheme, which applies to food sold in stores for home cooking and consumption. Red labels suggest levels of salt, sugar or fats are too high, amber shows they are at medium level and green at a low level. The calorie counting might also reduce portion sizes.
In New York chains with more than 15 branches across the US must carry the calorie count in the same size print as the name of the food. The companies, which make up 10% of the city's 2,500 restaurants and produce 30% of the meals, face fines for breaking the law, and preliminary results suggest consumers are already cutting their intake from such food by nearly 100 calories a meal. California has passed similar legislation. Guideline amounts in Britain suggest that women under 50 need about 2,000 calories a day and men 2,500, while children aged between five and 10 need about 1,800 calories.
A survey by the agency of more than 2,000 adults last summer suggested 85% of consumers agreed restaurants, pubs and cafes had a responsibility to make clear what was in the food they served, and later research showed people wanted clear, simple information at the point of sale. The agency expects consumer demand to force all food outlets from the very small to the very expensive to give calorie information.
Tim Smith, chief executive of the agency, said he expected trials to start in the summer or earlier. "We're used to seeing nutrition information when we are shopping, and there is no compelling reason why we shouldn't have more consistent information in order to make decisions about what we, our children and everyone else eat when we go out." But he made clear there would be no "calorie police" enforcing any scheme. Smith also suggested that TV chefs ought to be doing more to give calorie and nutrition information: "I think there will be television producers who start waking up to the idea simply providing recipes is not enough."
Jeff Alder of Consumer Focus, the government-funded watchdog, said: "This is a really good first move by the FSA. We know that people want nutritional information before they order meals and there is very little help on menus for them at the moment. Calories labelling is one way for people to compare the relative healthiness of meal options at a glance so we hope businesses will be rushing to adopt it."
Pizza Hut, with about 700 outlets serving 2 million people a week in the UK, became the first chain to publicly voice interest in becoming one of the pilot companies.
Alasdair Murdoch, chief executive in the UK, said: "While we already provide full nutritional information on our website, which is also available in our restaurants, we are always looking at improving the way we inform our customers."
