UK enforces calorie-count labeling law for restaurant and takeaway menus

07 Apr 2022 --- UK rules requiring takeaways, restaurants and cafés to display calorie information for non-prepackaged food and soft drinks are now in force.

Calorie counts will now be displayed on menus, online menus, third-party apps, food delivery platforms and food labels at the point a customer is making their food and drink choices. Menus and labels will also need to include daily recommended calorie needs with the phrase: “Adults need around 2000 kcal a day.”

“We hope this new law will make it easy for people who want to find healthier choices on these huge menus for themselves and their families, both in restaurants and at home,” Holly Gabriel, nutrition manager and registered nutritionist at nutrition advocacy group Action on Sugar, tells NutritionInsight. 

“An additional benefit to this law is that it will likely incentivize restaurants to develop healthier menus, which will have a positive impact on our health.”

“It is crucial that we all have access to the information we need to maintain a healthier weight, and this starts with knowing how calorific our food is,” says Public Health Minister Maggie Throup. 

“These measures are an important building block to making it as easy as possible for people to make healthier food choices.” 

Calorie counts would be displayed on menus along with pricing and other food item informationTackling takeout 
A survey by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities on calorie reduction revealed that 79% of respondents think that menus should include the number of calories in food and drinks.

Research suggests that food people eat outside the home makes up 20-25% of adult calorie intake, flags the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care. 

On average, the portions of food or drink that people eat out or eat as takeaway meals contain twice as many calories as their equivalent bought in a shop, where labeling is much more common.

Gabriel adds that the measures are “a great first step” to helping consumers understand what is in the food they are eating. However, menus displaying the high fat, salt and sugar content of food would be “even more beneficial in providing transparency.”

Extending labeling schemes
In UK supermarkets, consumers are already familiar with front-of-pack labeling schemes to help consumers make healthier choices.  

A traffic light labeling system enables consumers to easily assess the content of calories, fat, saturates, sugars and salt in products. 

While this type of labeling is still voluntary, UK nutrition advocacy groups Action on Salt and Sugar have urged the government to make it mandatory following a recent meta-analysis.

“Full nutrition labeling is common practice for supermarket foods and drinks, and evidence shows this helps direct consumers to healthier options – if they wish,” underscores Gabriel. 

Public Health Minister Maggie Throup highlights: “We are used to knowing [how caloric our food is] when we are shopping in the supermarket, but this isn’t the case when we eat out or get takeaway.”

Mom and pops exempt
The recent calorie-count count labeling law will only apply to large businesses – those that have more than 250 employees. 

“Only large chains are affected,” continues Gabriel, “many of whom already have nutrition information online, making this an easy law to implement.” 

However, the government is encouraging smaller shops to adopt the labeling scheme to “tackle disparities and level up the nation’s health.” 

Certain institutions where food is served in-house are also exempt, such as workplace canteens, military establishments and hospitals. 

Many restaurants also offer menus without calorie labels upon request for those who are concerned with the law, notes Gabriel.

Third-party mobile apps also need to display calorie information.Non-qualifying F&B
Exemption rules also apply to fresh fruits and vegetables, loaves of bread and unprocessed products, such as nuts, fish, meat and cheese. Alcoholic beverages containing more than 1.2% alcohol by volume do not have to be labeled with calorie counts either. 

Alcoholic beverages and premixed spirits are also notably excluded from the UK’s sugar levy, an exemption that the Action on Sugar has called “absurd.” 

“[Alcohol’s exemption] comes down to a long history of government lobbying by the alcohol industry and a lack of willingness by the government to take a stand,” asserts Gabriel. 

“Sugar and calories in alcoholic drinks are no different from sugar and calories in foods and soft drinks. It makes absolutely no sense that alcoholic drinks are exempt. They must be held to account.”  

She stresses that “urgent attention” is required from the government to ensure that gaps in the law do not contribute to the rise in obesity and related health conditions, as well as alcohol harm.

Government takes action against obesity 
The new labeling law was approved by parliament in 2021 as part of the UK’s strategy to tackle obesity, especially in children.  

Establishments that do not comply with new labeling laws could be fined £2,500 (US$3,275). But these fines are just a drop in the bucket to the £6.1 billion (US$7.9 billion) that the National Health Service (NHS) spends each year due to overweight and obesity-related conditions across the UK. 

Almost two-thirds (63%) of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity – and 40% of children leave primary school overweight or obese. 

Obesity is the single greatest risk factor for Type 2 diabetes, and there are an estimated 13.6 million people at increased risk of developing the condition in the UK. 

As part of the government’s further strategy to reduce overweight, it has introduced regulations to restrict the promotion of less healthy foods by location and volume price in-store and online. These come into force in October 2022.

Gabriel adds that Action on Sugar would like to see mandatory comprehensive reformulation targets on salt, sugar and calories for food companies and more fiscal measures such as the expansion of the SDIL.

Meanwhile, in the US, a new report highlights loopholes in the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), which still allows for brands with less healthy products to advertise online. 

By Missy Green