Three in four fast food outlets display calorie counts on menus

More than three-quarters of fast-food outlets have now put calorie menu labelling in place, according to

the Department of Health.

However, restaurants are still opposed to the measure, and the Restaurant Association of Ireland said the vast majority of its members were not supporting it.

A spokesman for the department said it did not yet have information on the number of restaurants involved in the scheme. The last survey on compliance was in September, and found 76 per cent of fast-food outlets had put calorie menu labelling in place.

It found half of all coffee shop chains were now listing calories, while 43 per cent of catering companies had put calorie menu labelling in place. "This represents 320 individual catering companies who serve on average 170,000 meals per day."

Set menus
Restaurant Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins said it was easy for chains of coffee shops and fast-food outlets to put calories on menus because they generally had set menus and the calorie content of a product such as coffee was easy to calculate. "But for small individual restaurants it's not practical or feasible, and it will cost them a lot of money to do it."

He said it had been calculated that it would cost a restaurant €6,500 to have the calorie count of every dish tested.

He only knew of two restaurants that had put calories on their menus. “We’re not confident that it will be implemented by restaurants at all.”

Mr Cummins also said restaurateurs were worried about potential litigation if a dish was found to be higher in calories than calculated by the restaurant. “There could be false advertising there, so you are breaching advertising regulations. We believe it has to be a voluntary mechanism.”

When Minister for Health James Reilly announced the campaign to put calories on menus in July 2012, he said he would legislate if businesses did not voluntarily do so.

Asked if he was planning such legislation in view of the non-compliance by most restaurants, the Department of Health spokesman said individual eating establishments had indicated they needed some support in introducing the scheme.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is now working on a calorie-counter software tool to make it easier for restaurants to calculate calories. A spokeswoman said it should be available in April.

The department spokesman said: “As 95 per cent of the public would like to see calories on menus, once this tool is available and the food businesses have had adequate time to use the software tool and put calorie menu labelling in place, the Department of Health will review the operation of the calorie menu labelling scheme.”