If you think coleslaw is less fattening, you need more information on fast food menus!

Aug 12 2008

Now that some U.S. cities, such as New York and Seattle, are insisting that fast food chains display the calorie content of their foods on the menu, or face a hefty fine, there have been calls in the UK for fast food restaurants there to also come clean and disclose the fat content and calories in their food too.

Worldwide chains such as Starbucks and Subway already comply in the U.S. with the new regulations which require disclosure of calorie content on menu boards at the point of sale, but as yet no such information is being offered to UK or European customers.

The Food Commission in the UK is urging the government to follow suit and make fast food chains display nutrition information on menu boards, next to the name and price of the item.

The Food Commission says currently making a healthy choice comes down to guess work.

In a survey to test how easy it is to work out which menu items could be considered healthier choices, the Food Commission queried 66 nutrition and obesity experts at the European Congress on Obesity in Geneva, and found that none could tell from the menu description which food was likely to have most the calories or fat.

In five simple multiple choice questions, about the nutritional value of well known menu items from major chain restaurants not one of the experts answered all five correctly.

Most of them answered only one or two answers correctly and the general public fared no better when out of 220 only one person got full marks, while 91% of those asked got less than half of the answers right.

The Food Commission says the advent of people eating out more often means companies serious about wanting to offer healthy choices, must give customers up front information.

The Food Commission survey has revealed some surprises in that the sub at Subway with the most calories is the Veggie Patty Sub - Kentucky Fried Chicken Coleslaw has the most amount of fat (more than the fries and the burger) and the Burger King item with the most fat is the Double Whopper with Cheese.