Minister: Calorie legislation not being ruled out

Legislation will be used to force food outlets to display calories on menus if there is resistance to the move, Health Minister Dr James Reilly has warned.

Dr Reilly was speaking at yesterday’s launch by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) of a national consultation on putting calorie information on menus in Ireland. The initiative to mark calorie information on menus was announced by Dr Reilly last year.

“We will go further than nudging those within the industry in the right direction. We will legislate — the future of our children is at stake here,” he said.

Dr Reilly said he was quite happy to continue the consultation process for a number of months to see if progress could be made.

He warned, however, that those who refused to cooperate would be “named and shamed”.

Research in America has found that when calorie information is shown on menus, people ate 152 fewer calories in restaurants; 73 fewer calories in sandwich bars and ate 6% fewer calories overall.

Chief specialist in public health nutrition with the FSAI Dr Mary Finn said most people were unaware that some snacks provided all the calories they needed in a day.

“People are choosing large portion sizes for better value. They are welcoming ‘free side’ dishes, extra toppings as well as sauces with no idea of the amounts of hidden calories they may contain. At this stage in Ireland we’re used to litre-size drinks and we don’t notice the extra-thick bread and large rolls in sandwich bars,” said Dr Finn.

“On top of all this we’d probably feel cheated if food businesses offered us reasonable portion sizes. In effect, all of this promotes oblivious overeating by many of us on a regular basis,” she said.