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More catering companies put healthy eating on the menu

12th May 2009, 12:16pm

Some of the most well-known restaurant chains on the UK high street have agreed to work with the FSA to put healthy eating firmly on the menu for their customers.

PizzaExpress, Pizza Hut, The Restaurant Group (which operates Frankie & Benny's, Chiquito and Garfunkel's), Tragus (which operates Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Strada) and the takeaway chain Domino's have all agreed to provide commitments, which will focus on the range of healthier options available to their customers.

The companies together operate more than 2,000 restaurants and takeaway outlets across the UK. Each business will give the Agency a six month progress update.

Some of the measures announced today include:

salt reduction projects – this work includes finding ways to use less salt in pizza dough and training hundreds of chefs not to use salt in food preparation.

extensive work to collect full nutritional data for products and recipes (for restaurant groups with seasonally changing menus across many brands this involves thousands of products) – this data will then be used to help recipe reformulation and to provide more customer information

reviewing children's menus to make them healthier, including using more 'hidden' vegetables in dishes and offering more fruit

working with suppliers to identify core products lower in saturated fat, for example to identify a lower-fat mozzarella cheese as a pizza topping or using lower fat dressings and milk

increasing the range of healthier options on offer, including more salads, soups, fish dishes, grilled foods and desserts with more fruit

Progress described by the companies includes a 30% reduction of salt across the menu by one company since 2004, the introduction of a pizza with a cheese that contains one third less fat (than the standard cheese) and a 500 calorie pizza.

Rosemary Hignett, Head of Nutrition at the FSA, said: "The commitments made by these well-known companies are good news for those of us who eat out and good news for public health. We now have more than 40 companies working with the Agency to ensure their customers can make healthier choices if they want to. We estimate this could benefit around eight million customers every day, which is clearly a significant achievement. We welcome all of the efforts being taken by these companies to help us all enjoy healthier diets."

Also publishing commitments today are four coffee chains:

Camden Food Co.

John Lewis Partnership Cafés

Sainsbury's Cafés

Upper Crust

Camden Food Co., Pizza Hut and Sainsbury's Cafés are also working with the FSA to trial calorie labelling over the summer.

Related Articles:

12 Nov 2009 - Jamie Oliver's pasta sauces contain too much salt, says CASH
29 Jul 2009 - 'We must make healthy options more attainable'
23 Jul 2009 - New survey reveals salt content varies across the world
03 Jun 2009 - Favourite pub chains lagging behind in salt reduction
26 May 2009 - PizzaExpress joins the Hi-Life
19 May 2009 - Salt reduction plans underway
15 May 2009 - Goymour points park visitors towards healthy eating

Words Clare Riley 0 comments

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