Menu labelling comes to chain restaurants

A number of well-known high‑street restaurants will trial nutritional labelling on their menus this summer, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) will announce today (15 January).

The scheme is the latest step in the FSA's drive to improve the nation's diet and follows agreements signed with the major contract caterers on workplace menus.

The FSA is not revealing the names of the restaurants taking part yet, but they are believed to come from across the sector.

The scheme, initially covering calorie information, follows research carried out by the FSA before Christmas which revealed that consumers were in favour of seeing more nutritional information on menus or at the point of sale. They believed it was a natural next step from the information retailers provide on food packaging.

However, one industry source insists that a menu-labelling scheme would be "completely unworkable" for all but the largest chains.

● FSA chief executive Tim Smith reveals more in next week's Viewpoint.

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By Daniel Thomas

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