The new evidence presented by Public Health England earlier this month is clear; children and adults are consuming more calories than they need, resulting in the rates of obesity we see today.
Overweight or obese boys and girls consume up to 500 and 290 calories too many each day respectively; whilst adults consume 200–300 calories in excess each day.
‘One You’ Campaign
To help adults become more calorie aware when eating out, the Government has launched ‘One You’ campaign:
- Encouraging adults to consume 400 calories at breakfast, and 600 for lunch and dinner
- This new campaign aims to partner with high-street eateries to signpost meals that meet the 400-600-600 guidance. The ambition is to help people manage their calorie intake better
- However, guidance on energy intake has not changed as the total daily calorie intake recommendations remain at 2000kcal for women and 2500kcal for men.
Calorie reduction plan
On 6 March 2018, the Government also published programme Calorie reduction: The scope and ambition for action, asking food industry to reduce calories by 20% in products consumed by families, particularly children under 18 years by 2024.
Retailers and manufacturers, restaurants, pubs, cafes, takeaway and delivery services and others in the eating out of home sector are required tackle this challenge by:
- Changing the recipe of products
- Reducing portion size
- Encouraging consumers to purchase lower calorie products
Categories of food covered by the programme include pizzas, ready meals, ready-made sandwiches, meat products and savoury snacks.
What is the role of caterers?
Many caterers have been working on reducing sugar, salt, fat and calories in meal options for some time now. However, there is still more to be done according to Public Health England and all food organisations are encouraged to start to work now on reducing the calorie content of every day foods.
Caterers should focus on their most popular menu items, reviewing their recipes and food portion sizes and offering lower calorie alternatives to products where available.
The next step in the programme involves engagement with the whole food industry, including the eating out of home sector and small businesses, to develop category specific guidelines. These will be published in mid-2019.
Read more about the Government’s plans for calorie reduction
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Need help to achieve this target?
If you would like to review your menu or food/drinks products you buy to reduce sugar, fat, salt and calories consumption – please contact Anna-Maria Holt BSc Hons. RD, member of British Dietetic Association and Company Dietitian at Pelican Procurement Services on anna-maria.holt@pelicanprocurement.co.uk or call 01252 705200.
Many caterers also use Pelican’s Pi online menu system – which is helping them with their menu engineering.
Piranha allows you to track allergen, nutritional data such as sugar, fat, salt and calories per portion.
The system enables you to standardise dishes across the whole organisation.
The system also provides a purchasing report showing high and low values of sugar, salt, fat and calories in products / ingredient as they are invoiced.
If you would like to see the system in action please contact us to see short demo hello@pelicanprocurement.co.uk
