Scottish government launches consultation on calorie labelling

The Scottish government has launched a public consultation seeking views on the plans to add the number of calories to menus in the out of home food sector.

New rules requiring calorie information to be displayed on menus and food labels have come into force in England this week.

Mandatory calorie labelling is part of action to address obesity which the government said continues to be one of the biggest and most complex public health challenges, with two-thirds of the population living in Scotland recorded as living with overweight or obesity.

“Before the pandemic, people living in Scotland were consuming more and more food and drink out of home or ordering it in. Whether it’s breakfast at a roadside café, grabbing a lunchtime soup and sandwich from a local convenience store or ordering food online from a restaurant, most of us were increasingly buying food outside the home – a trend I expect to resume as we recover from the pandemic,” Public Health Minister Maree Todd said.

“We know that giving people more information, such as the number of calories in meals will enable people to make healthier choices when eating out, or ordering in. This is not novel practice – calories are already required on retail food purchases and calorie labelling for out of home sites is mandated in many other countries.

The proposals cover supermarkets, delicatessens and convenience stores who provide ‘food on the go’ as part of the out of home sector, among others. The 12-week consultation sets out the broad types of food and drink that would be covered and will seek views on how this could apply to:

• food and hospitality businesses, depending on their size
• public sector institutions such as hospitals and prisons
• pre-packed food such as filled sandwiches
• online takeaway menus
• children’s menus

Commenting, Ewan McDonald-Russell, head of policy and external affairs at the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: “Our members in grocery and food-to-go have led the way in providing calorie and nutritional information to consumers, over and above the action they have taken to promote healthier alternatives and reformulate products to reduce their salt, sugar and fat content. Ensuring customers of all organisations serving food understand exactly what they are consuming empowers them to make the right choices to ensure they maintain a balanced diet.

“Introducing a mandatory approach to calorie labelling is therefore a reasonable proposition, provided it is implemented in a sensible manner and is applied to all businesses serving food and drink. The pandemic has laid bare many of the health inequalities in Scotland – measures need to apply across industry to ensure the most effective outcome and ensure firms which have taken positive action in this area are able to compete on a level playing field.”