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Calorie labelling even when we're out?

The issue: Conservatives wish to have calories labelled on meals, even when we're eating out.  This is in conjunction with the Food Standard Agency's (FSA) efforts to display nutritional value to aid healthy living.

Today health secretary Andrew Lansley announced, the Tories say they will 'work with the catering and hospitality sectors to provide consistent and meaningful information about meals eaten away from home'.

With this currently under trial with the FSA in 21 hospitality businesses, including chain and fast food restaurants it has seen to be successful with the customers.
The Tories say they would 'promote' the display of consistent nutritional information in all restaurants with more than 15 outlets, although they have not yet stated if it would be mandatory.
"We will focus efforts on extending nutritional information to restaurants in a manner consistent with the nutritional information baseline for on-pack labelling, including calories, sugars, salt, fat and saturated fat per portion," the green paper says.

With society becoming more enthralled by healthy lifestyles than ever, this could see a greater increase of customers who are very strict in their lifestyle choices, opting for home cooked meals instead of going out.

This also raises the fact that people go out for dinner to escape their usual healthy eating and so when eating out, if they see the nutritional value on something they used to love and is part of their balanced lifestyle, then where do they draw the line?  Does that customer order something and leave not completely satisfied, therefore perhaps being less likely to return with the daunting choices between low fat and meal fulfilment?

These are some tough choices that businesses may or may not have to adhere to, but it does raise the point: Do people actually want to know how many calories their pizza contains if it is just a once a month treat?  Or has our nation gone too far down the line to understand a balanced diet?

Comment at the top of the page or email natalie.martin@hospitalityskillsacademy.co.uk with your view.

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