As of next year, under new laws, ALL outlets preparing and serving food for sale to the public will be required to display calorie counts on all menus at point of sale. How will this impact your food business?
These regulations are being brought in to counteract the perceived inactivity by the industry in response to what was originally a voluntary code – less than 10% of all foodservice outlets voluntarily displayed the nutritional information!
Undoubtedly, with change comes cost, but government sources claim that the 4.5% reduction in VAT that the foodservice industry has enjoyed will help alleviate the costs of implementing the regulations. On the other hand, change also brings opportunity – consumers are not going to stop eating, nor are they going to stop consuming takeaway food.
Whether we agree or not, the intent behind these new regulations is clear:
1. To tackle the country’s well publicised obesity crisis.
2. To give consumers the information at point of purchase, so that they have the option of making healthier choices if they wish to do so.
3. To encourage the foodservice industry to offer healthier options.
Fears that displaying the calorie information will make consumers reduce their out-of-home food consumption are largely unfounded. Retail products have been labelled with calorie counts for many years. However, it will serve to change some consumers’ choices.
Health experts recently cited the example in a Dublin hospital canteen. A jumbo muffin on sale had the 400 calories declared at the counter and over a relatively period of weeks, sales of the muffin dropped by over 50%. The canteen operator quickly noticed the problem and replaced the offending muffin with a smaller muffin made to a new recipe which reduced the calorie count to 200. Sales quickly grew again!
The obvious lesson from this is the imperative for food preparation outlets to consider how calorie counts might be reduced on the products they serve, in order to avoid the ‘jumbo muffin’ experience.
How exactly the regulation is policed is as yet unclear. However, once the practice becomes more widespread consumers will expect to be informed and will vote with their wallets!
For more information on how you can make your transition into this regime easier, contact our technical team on (01) 4983048.
