July 26, 2011

expert reaction to BMJ paper on calorie labelling of fast food

Researchers looked at the effect of food labelling on the energy content of fast food purchases.

Dr Mike Rayner, Director of the BHF Health Promotion Research Group, University of Oxford, said:

“New York State are to be congratulated on being one of the first jurisdictions in the world to make calorie labelling in fast food outlets compulsory. But what we need in the UK is not calorie labelling – on some half-baked voluntary basis – but compulsory traffic light labelling in fast foods restaurants. Traffic light labelling would tell us which foods are healthy or unhealthy taking account of all the nutrients in the foods – the saturated fat, the salt, etc. – and not just the calories.”

‘Changes in energy content of lunchtime purchases from fast food restaurants after introduction of calorie labelling: cross sectional customer surveys’ by Tamara Dumanovsky et al., published online in the British Medical Journal on 26th July.