Eating out has become part of the culture of people in Britain, especially for many singles. Whether its lunch, dinner, on business or travelling abroad, Brits spend more on eating out in restaurants than cooking themselves, perhaps for convenience and a form of socialisation.

Despite the credit crunch, restaurants in high streets are still very busy. While many reports have indicated that the recession has altered Brits’ eating habits and people have cut back on eating out, a majority of busy professionals still prefer to walk into their nearest eateries during their lunch breaks and dinner – despite these difficult times.

Bearing this in mind, there is still a large number of health conscious people and those who are opting for the healthier route with their food choices while eating out, more so when they are too tired to cook after work. The obstruction to this is the lack of knowledge in this ‘healthy’ arena. One of the main problems when dining out or grabbing a take-away is that the food menus at eateries don’t stipulate the calorie count on it.

In resolving this situation, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) launched a new scheme in April enabling health conscious consumers to count the calorie content in their food when they eat out in restaurants, fast food and staff canteens. This step is to ensure consumers have an informed decision to make when it comes to healthy options.

According to Gillian Merron, Minister for Public Health, the FSA is the productive trials of this scheme which commenced over the summer, involves catering firms comprising restaurants, fast food outlets and staff canteens. The first group of businesses involved in the voluntary scheme have shown positive results and a few restaurants have agreed to support the legislation and will carry on disclosing calories in their menus.

The FSA also revealed that consumers were in favour of seeing more nutritional information displayed on the menus.

If the FSA were to standardise this new scheme onto menus in all eateries, the general public would make the extra effort in making a healthy decision when ordering their meals.

At Esteem Fitness, we share the importance of consuming a balanced diet and living a healthy life. We are able to educate your staff on calorie count by providing the necessary knowledge of reading labels and consuming the correct amount based on their individual requirement.

With our kitchen expert – nutritionist Andrea Zick who was also a chef – we are also able to visit your canteen or restaurant and provide suggestions for healthy dishes.

Angela Sargunan

Esteem Fitness – Corporate Fitness, Nutrition and Well-being Consultancy

Enhancing Personal Health and Corporate Wealth