The public is being invited to have its say on plans to add the number of calories to menus in the out of home food sector including cafes, restaurants and takeaways.
Mandatory calorie labelling is part of action to address obesity which, with two-thirds of the population living in Scotland recorded as living with overweight or obesity, continues to be one of the biggest and most complex public health challenges.
Eating out is common place with almost everyone in Scotland (98%) consuming food outside the home, however nutrition information is not always available.
A 12-week consultation, which sets out the broad types of food and drink that would be covered, will seek views on how this could apply to:
- food and hospitality businesses, depending on their size
- public sector institutions such as hospitals and prisons
- pre-packed food such as filled sandwiches
- online takeaway menus
- children’s menus
Chef unhappy
It will inform whether legislation is introduced to make it a legal requirement for calories to be included on menus and forms part of the government’s wider actions to ensure Scotland is a place where people eat well and have a healthy weight.
But renowned chef Nick Nairn has called for small independent restaurants to be exempt from plans to introduce calorie counts on menus in Scotland.
Nairn, 63, said it would be “totally impracticable” for restaurants like his to comply with the rules.
He wants Scotland to follow the lead of England, which introduced calorie counts on menus last week but only for businesses with 250 staff or more.
Public health
However, the Scottish Government says mandating calorie labelling at the point of choice could support the food and hospitality sector to make a key contribution in improving dietary health.
Public Health Minister Maree Todd said: “Before the pandemic, people living in Scotland were consuming more and more food and drink out of home or ordering it in. Whether it’s breakfast at a roadside café, grabbing a lunchtime soup and sandwich from a local convenience store or ordering food online from a restaurant, most of us were increasingly buying food outside the home – a trend I expect to resume as we recover from the pandemic.
“Two-thirds of the population living in Scotland is recorded as living with overweight or obesity – a key factor in our plan to address this is calorie labelling. We know that giving people more information, such as the number of calories in meals will enable people to make healthier choices when eating out, or ordering in. This is not novel practice – calories are already required on retail food purchases and calorie labelling for out of home sites is mandated in many other countries.
“Many food companies in Scotland have already taken this significant step voluntarily. We want to learn from those experiences and I would urge everyone to share their thoughts in this consultation.”
You can view the consultation paper here: ‘Mandatory Calorie Labelling in the Out Of Home (OOH) Sector in Scotland’.