Restaurants to put calories on menus by September 2011

21st February 2011, 11:58am

The Department of Health has today confirmed weekend reports that calorie labelling will appear on foodservice menus as early as September this year.

Health secretary Andrew Lansley has written formally to all members of the Food Network, which includes McDonald's and Pizza Hut, to ask for a written commitment to the plans entitled 'Responsibility Deal'.

The government has stressed that the new rules would be voluntary but said many foodservice companies "are keen to make a firm commitment".

A Department of Health spokesperson told eatoutmagazine.co.uk: "Restaurants, quick service restaurants, takeaways, cafés, pubs, sandwich shops and staff restaurants would sign up to put calorie labelling on their eat in and take away menus from September this year. Although many businesses include nutritional information on their websites — that's not a big help when in a shop choosing a sandwich or sitting down to eat a pizza."

As part of the rules, companies would also need to reduce salt in a wide range of foods to achieve specific targets by 2012. For example, 100g of pizza will be required to have an average of 1g of salt and 100g of pasta sauce (excluding pesto) will need to have on average 0.83g of salt.

The third commitment for foodservice operators will be the removal of trans fats "once and for all" by the end of the year. Trans fats have a similar effect on blood cholesterol as saturated fats — they raise the type of cholesterol in the blood that increases the risk of heart disease. 

This move is happening much faster than anticipated because the government believes it is more cost-effective to the tax-payer than holding a consultation to introduce legislation.

Asked why they think the time is right to bring in these rules, the Department of Health said there was more of an immediate opportunity now to "impact on people's diet than there has been for years".

Related Articles:

• 25 Mar 2011 - Pizza Hut named Best Family Restaurant at baby friendly awards
• 07 Mar 2011 - Harvester becomes the first pub brand to display calorie counts
• 21 Dec 2009 - Menu labelling does help diners eat less, say American researchers
• 15 Jan 2009 - Restaurants and caterers to trial menu labelling

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