The organisation is inviting businesses and members of the public to give their opinions on the proposals, which focus on calorie reduction across the sector while maintaining choice and availability of consumers’ favourite foods.
FSS hoped to achieve this through smaller portion sizes, increased fruit and vegetable intake, provision of consumer calorie and nutrition information, a shift to promoting healthier products.
They also promote the consumer’s right to information about the food they buy, as well as proposing improvements to food aimed at children and young people when eating out.
Standards for healthy eating
“We recognise the out-of-home sector makes an important contribution to the Scottish economy, but it doesn’t always support a healthy diet,” said Ross Finnie, chair of FSS.
“There is a real opportunity for the public sector in Scotland to set the standard for healthy eating out of home, by implementing measures now such as clear calorie labelling, cutting down on calories and reducing portion sizes.”
A recent FSS Food in Scotland consumer tracking survey found strong public support for measures such as displaying calories on menus (68%) and increased availability of smaller and half-portions of regular menu items (82%).
Scotland’s public health minister Joe Fitzpatrick said the government was looking forward to engaging with all parties to improve the food and drink available outside the home and ensuring change made will be reasonable and proportionate.
‘Reduce serious health problems’
“Through our Diet and Healthy Weight Delivery Plan, we are taking decisive action to deliver positive outcomes by helping to reduce serious health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, cancer and heart disease, which are commonly caused by eating a poor diet,” added Fitzpatrick.
The consultation will be open to responses until 28 February 2019. A link to the consultation can be found here.
Meanwhile, leaving the EU could present the UK with the opportunity to set its own regulations for labelling that would better help fight obesity, an expert in food legislation has claimed.
