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An evaluation of mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector
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An evaluation of mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector - what it tells us about mandatory calorie labelling and what it tells us about dietary public health policy making
Professor Jean Adams
Date: Wednesday 28 May, 16:00
Location: Oxford Martin School, seminar room 1 and online
Join us for a talk with Professor Jean Adams, University of Cambridge, on mandatory calorie labelling.
Title: An evaluation of mandatory calorie labelling in the out-of-home sector - what it tells us about mandatory calorie labelling and what it tells us about dietary public health policy making
Abstract: Food from out of home food outlets (OHFO) tends to be higher in calories than food cooked at home. People who eat more food from OHFO are more likely to be living with obesity. New regulations requiring calorie labels in chain OHFO came into force in England in April 2022 as part of the government's obesity strategy.
We conducted a multi-component evaluation of the regulations, mostly using a pre-post design. There was reasonable compliance with the rules, but this could be improved. There were small increases in the number of people noticing and using labels, but few people did either. There were some changes to menus that led to a small reduction in the number of calories available, but there was no change in the number of calories customers purchased or consumed. Local Authorities did not actively enforce the rules.
In this seminar, I'll describe the history of mandatory calorie labelling in the UK. I'll then present our evaluation findings in more detail. Finally, I'll reflect on what we can learn from this policy about dietary public health policymaking more broadly.
Jean Adams is a Professor of Dietary Public Health at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University. Her work explores how the environment, in its widest sense, influences what people eat and how we can change the environment to support people to eat better. Recent work has explored online food delivery apps, menu labelling in large chain restaurants, the soft drinks industry levy and the potential for 'healthier' takeaways.
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