Making healthy choices when you eat out may soon become much easier. The Food Standard Agency has begun work to introduce nutrition information on menus and point of sale in restaurants and catering outlets with the aim of encouraging consumers to make healthy choices.
Initially this project encourages voluntary labelling of the calories in meals. It follows from surveys showing that consumers were in favour of having this information, giving them the choice to use it or not.
We’ve become accustomed to seeing nutritional information on packaged food in supermarkets and take it as our right to know what we are paying for and eating if we wish to. Many restaurant chains have nutritional information available on their websites. Though this is very helpful, few consumers would have decided on what they are eating and be prepared and planned enough to look online before they set out for a meal.
Those wishing to abandon all cares and restrictions on a night out with good food are under no pressure to read up on the small prints. Yet for those on heart health recovery plans, weight loss diets or other health plans this information allows them to enjoy the pleasures of eating out where they would otherwise avoid it altogether. In fact with a quick scan through most menus you’ll be surprised how many meals that you thought were off limits are actually in line with a healthy day.