The Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has confirmed that it will be soon be mandatory for restaurants and food establishments to print calorie intake on their menus.
The news comes after the University College Cork conducted an independent evaluation on the behalf of the Department of Health which showed that only 7% of restaurant owners chose to post calorie information on their menus. That alarming news has now prompted the Department of Health to introduce new legislation that will make all restaurants and food establishments within Ireland publish calorie information on their menu’s. The Health Minister said: “We know that over 95% of consumers in Ireland want the calorie count of meals displayed on menus. It’s a proven way of changing consumer behaviour and independent evidence from the USA shows that calorie posting is very effective.”
However the news has not gone down well with Food service businesses owners who say that they didn’t display calories because of time and cost constraints. Meanwhile data collected from researchers at UCC shows that almost a quarter of the total calorie intake of Irish adults under the age of 65 is consumed outside of the home. Mr Varadkar also added that although the the obesity level in the country has stabilised in recent years, a lot more needs to be done to tackle the issue, saying: “The recent Healthy Ireland survey showed that 60% of Irish people are overweight.”