The Government wants to keep an eye on what we are eating as it hopes to cut obesity rates.
Ministers reportedly want to keep an eye on what people order to eat out. (Image: Getty)
Restaurants will reportedly be forced to tell the Government what their customers eat under new plans. Ministers are thought to be wanting to enforce calorie cutting at large chains in an effort to lower obesity rates in the UK. The Health Secretary over the weekend urged overweight Brits to cut 200 calories from their diet per day, as supermarkets were warned that they could be fined if they do not sell healthier food. “If everyone who is overweight reduced their calorie intake by around 200 calories a day – the equivalent of a bottle of fizzy drink – obesity would be halved,” Wes Streeting said.
“This Government’s ambition for kids today is for them to be part of the healthiest generation of children ever. That is within our grasp. With the smart steps we’re taking today, we can give every child a healthy start to life.” He added: “Our brilliant supermarkets already do so much work for our communities and are trying to make their stores healthier, and we want to work with them and other businesses to create a level playing field.”
Restaurants may have to report back to the Government about what customers are eating. (Image: Getty)
“Through our new healthy food standard, we will make the healthy choice the easy choice, because prevention is better than cure.”
Now, new rules would mean businesses would be expected to report how many calories customers consume on average, according to The Telegraph.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of hospitality group UKHospitality, told the newspaper that the industry had been “totally blindsided” by the proposal.
She said: “This is really wide-ranging in scope. We really need the Government to start talking to the hospitality sector, not excluding it from these discussions, to make sure that we get the details right.
Wes Streeting is aiming to cut obesity rates. (Image: Getty)
“We’ve yet to understand how mandatory reporting and targets would change the obesity situation in the UK.”
Restaurant bosses are said to be expecting to have to disclose how much fatty, salty or sugary food they are selling, and are preparing for Government-mandated targets around reducing calories, fat, salt or sugar, or a combination of all four.
It comes after research published in January concluded that introducing calorie labels in restaurants in England did not change customer behaviour.
A Nature Human Behaviour article stated: “We examined whether the introduction of a calorie labelling policy in England was associated with a change in calories consumed in the out-of-home food sector.
“Our findings suggest that the introduction of the policy was not associated with a significant decrease in calories purchased or consumed.”
