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Our policy officer Katie Chruszcz talks through new research into the effect of having calorie counts on menus in New York.

Picture this hypothetical scene. You’re queuing in your favourite fast food restaurant, you take a cursory glance at the menu and then step forward to order your usual burger with all the trimmings.

But hang on, that number isn’t the price, it’s a rather high calorie count. What do you do next?

• Go ahead and order
• Think again and lose the trimmings

Well, a new study from New York suggests many people are opting for the latter. At this point you’d be forgiven for being a little confused because calories aren’t on restaurant menus here in the UK (not yet, but I’ll come to that later). But they are in the Big Apple.

In 2008, New York City brought in a law that stated fast food chains with 15 or more branches nationally had to provide calorie information on menus. The results of this new study show us that when people do look at the calorie count they are, on average, more likely to pick something with 100 fewer calories.

It’s a clear piece of evidence that putting calorie counts on menus helps diners make informed choices and eat more healthily if they want to.

Putting calorie counts on menus helps diners make informed choices and eat more healthily if they want to

It’s good news because the problem of obesity in the UK isn’t going to go away, and to tackle it we need a range of tactics to help people understand what’s in the food they’re buying.

A key part of this is having clear, front-of-pack labelling in the supermarket. But it shouldn’t stop there. One in six of our meals is eaten away from our dining room, kitchen or sofa so we need ‘labelling’ to appear in cafes and restaurants too.

And while calorie counts are a great initial move, it’d be even better if there was a whole range of nutritional information on show at the point we make decisions about what to buy, including levels of fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt. For the sake of our waistlines and our hearts we all need to keep an eye on what’s in the food we’re eating.

A number of UK food companies have promised that they will provide calorie information in their outlets from September, and a handful of companies have started already. Unlike America, calorie labelling in the UK is voluntary. But for the best chance of success, all retailers need to get involved.

Obesity rates

Cutting down on saturated fat and salt, and keeping to a healthy weight can help protect us against heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. But at the last count, more than a quarter of all adults in England were obese.

There are lots of things we need to do to help drive down those worrying obesity rates. Making sure nutritional information is provided in food outlets would be a big step in the right direction by helping people make more informed choices.

What do you think? Have you seen calories on the menu anywhere in the UK, and would you change your menu selection in light of them? Join others in our online community and tell us your view.

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