According to BBC news today, 18 businesses have agreed to display calorie information on their menus. On the surface of things, this sounds like good news, but will it really make a difference, and does it go far enough?
As well as the legal minimum information that needs to be displayed on food items, some manufacturers go further. On many foods, there are labels to show the calories, sugars, fat, saturates and salt per serving, in both grams and percentage of an adult’s guideline daily amount. Some labelling uses a traffic light colour coding to show whether the amounts of these per serving is healthy or not (see here for more information on both these methods).
This certainly gives people more information about their food, and as long as their portion sizes are realistic, can help as part of a diet or lifestyle change.
The voluntary calorie labelling of foods reported today is obviously a good start, but there is no unified approach. This means that different food outlets will display the information differently, which is a potential source of confusion for customers.
A far better system would be similar to one of the labelling guidelines above – knowing calories is a good start but knowing salt, sugar and saturated fat content is far more useful information. It also helps people understand whether their diet is balanced.
A chicken salad from one of the fast food chains can be a healthy option – most of the calories are in the dressing, which normally comes in a separate sachet. Will the restaurant label each salad component seperately so you can make an informed choice, or will the salad suddenly look like a frighteningly-calorific option because they assume you’ll use all the dressing? (And decide a burger looks like a better choice!!)
It also depends on how often you eat calorie dense food (food that provides a lot of calories in a small amount). If you eat fast food every day of the week, cutting down on calorie intake will be very beneficial. However, if you eat it once every few months, you won’t really see much change if you do opt for a lower-calorie option.
However, having to show calories may force ‘healthy’ competition – fast food outlets vying for more business by reducing the calorie content of their foods to below that of their competitors whilst retaining flavour, and keeping the price down.
