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Health

Call for fast food info displays

11/08/2008

Fast food chains should be made to display information about the nutritional content of their food, campaigners claimed today.

The Food Commission wants UK retailers to give the details next to the name and price of the item.

This would be similar to a system used in New York where chains including Starbucks and Subway print calorie content on menu boards at the point of sale.

"US restaurant chains should treat their European customers as openly as they do their American customers and provide nutrition details at the point of sale here," said Anna Glayzer of the Food Commission.

"At the moment customers have to rely on guess work if they want to make healthier choices."

The call for greater information follows a survey of 66 nutrition and obesity experts at the European Congress on Obesity in Geneva.

The Food Commission showed them a menu description from Subway, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King and asked them to name the one likely to have most calories or fat.

Asked five simple multiple choice questions, not one of the experts answered all five correctly, with most of them getting only one or two answers correct.

When 220 members of the public were asked the same questions only one person got full marks and 91 per cent got less than half of the answers right.

"People are eating out more than they used to," said Ms Glayzer.

"If companies are genuinely serious about wanting to offer healthy choices, they need to give customers up front information. If they can do it in the States, then there is no reason why they should not do it here."