Will UK calorie counting regulations for restaurants stifle creativity?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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From 6 April hospitality businesses with more than 250 employees will have to list calorie information for each dish. Items that are on the menu for less than 30 days will be exempt from the rule, but there are concerns it could stifle creativity in the kitchen.

A chef has warned that the introduction of calorie counts on menus could lead to more formulaic cooking and prove difficult for customers with eating disorders.

Chef Sven-Hanson Britt, who runs Oxeye restaurant in London and won MasterChef: The Professionals Rematch in 2019, said: "I can imagine sales of some high-calorie dishes will drop then chefs will end up creating dishes to fit a certain number. "Will there be a sweet spot where your main course is 400-500 calories because that's what customers want? We will become detached from food and the heritage of cooking."
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Chef warns calorie counts on menus will harm...
 
Wow, i thought the US government had some ridiculous rules. We have restaurants that include calories voluntarily, and they generally have a separate "healthy" section, but i believe they are in the vast minority. They are also almost always part of a chain with corporate chefs and more than likely nutritionists.

Restaurants on the lower end of those numbers may not have the resources, perhaps not even the knowledge, to determine correct calorie counts for every dish, so will have a huge burden placed on them, which obviously will affect their menus.
 
In Canada it's about the number of restaurants a restaurant has operating. 5 and over they're required to disclose the calories and flag for high sodium. McDonalds have been disclosing calories since 2005 or around there and the USA starting I think the next year on 2006.

With the population basically dying of inflammatory diseases from basically diet and overconsumption it's amazing that the UK has not done this sooner.

Has it helped, no. Obesity and inflammatory diseases have increased since the early 2000's in both Countries.

Will this effect the creativity of the food in the UK. First question, how many restaurants in the UK have over 250 employee's. Also it mentions any offering that are not on the menu for more than 30 days are exempt, which if your a restaurant that serves mostly fresh whole ingredients this new law shouldn't bother you. If your a food chain restaurant in the UK and have a total of 250 employee's or more, then this would effect you.

These laws and bills are normally a result of watchdog groups and other organized groups that lobby gov't to counter the lobbying for fast food and refined products. Basically gov'ts were forced to do this.

As far as chain restaurants are concerned where it's cheap and sell to a demographic that is mostly effected with obesity then this is a good thing, imo. Although it has basically done nothing from moving the needle upward in Canada.

So to answer the question, will it stifle creatively, no absolutely not.
 
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Morning Glory said:
I'm thinking this will be chain restaurants. Not many individual restaurants will have that many staff.
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I would think that as well.
The large chain restaurants, at least here in the US, have gone to using, for lack of a better term, hub kitchens that mass produce a good portion of their menu, package it up and truck it to the various restaurants. Then when an order is placed, the "cook" simply re-heats the different components. By doing this, the parent company has control over the consistency of the products.
It seems to me that the servers are plating salads, desserts, small things.
DH & I try our darnedest not to patronize chain restaurants.
 
Morning Glory said:
I'm thinking this will be chain restaurants. Not many individual restaurants will have that many staff.
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Menus with basic nutritional information have been common for quite a while here. It hasn't stifled creativity, that I have seen. I find it useful, myself -- especially if they include sodium amounts.

Where I have had an awakening is the nutritional information on restaurant salads. You think you are making a healthier choice, and then find out your salad has as many calories and as much fat as a cheeseburger and fries/chips.

If anything, I'd like to see more creativity come from disclosing nutritional information. Too many "chain" restaurants make bad cooking taste good with loads of salt, sugar and fat.

CD
 
kaneohegirlinaz said:
I would think that as well.
The large chain restaurants, at least here in the US, have gone to using, for lack of a better term, hub kitchens that mass produce a good portion of their menu, package it up and truck it to the various restaurants. Then when an order is placed, the "cook" simply re-heats the different components. By doing this, the parent company has control over the consistency of the products.
It seems to me that the servers are plating salads, desserts, small things.
DH & I try our darnedest not to patronize chain restaurants.
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Yeah, this is basically a "formulated recipe" and only chain restaurants do this to control quality, quantity, and cost. All gov't nutritional labeling requirements are geared to these establishments or at least I'm not aware otherwise.
 
caseydog said:
Menus with basic nutritional information have been common for quite a while here. It hasn't stifled creativity, that I have seen. I find it useful, myself -- especially if they include sodium amounts.

Where I have had an awakening is the nutritional information on restaurant salads. You think you are making a healthier choice, and then find out your salad has as many calories and as much fat as a cheeseburger and fries/chips.

If anything, I'd like to see more creativity come from disclosing nutritional information. Too many "chain" restaurants make bad cooking taste good with loads of salt, sugar and fat.

CD
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Absolutely. There is a term that research and development departments use to describe the combination of salt, sugar and fat in process foods and it's called "The Bliss Point" Basically they have professional tasters from a variety of geographical locations that attempt to determine by blind tasting with a given product where they like it the most and would continue to consume and that is referred to the bliss point. This can actually change within similar products like cookies for example and why each cookie will have different content of sugar, salt and fat. Crazy stuff that the fast food companies go to for shareholder value and has nothing to do with health. This info can be found over the internet. :whistling:
 
Do chains with over 250 employees really contribute to invention and creativity? I have the impression they tend to have standardised menus driven by costs and margins.
I like Sven, and he uses meat from my favourite butcher, but I can't agree with him on this - I don't see how it will affect his work, and those who visit McDonalds aren't going to bother with the calorie count anyway.
 
Here in Australia the calorie (or joules as it is here) is displayed on everything that major fast-food outlets sell and it had been law since 2011 (except for Tasmania and the Northern Territories). So overhead, above the cashier, where the signs are, the menu items all list the calorie information along with the recommended calorie intake per male/ per female etc. So I don't really think it will affect or stifle creativity for large companies because it is already being done in Australia.
 
The Velvet Curtain said:
Do chains with over 250 employees really contribute to invention and creativity? I have the impression they tend to have standardised menus driven by costs and margins.
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Clearly it depends on what level of service you are intending to deliver etc but its really not that hard to hit 250 employees for a small restaurant group when you consider they're open 7 days a week, 2 shifts at least a day, chefs, porters, bar staff, waiters, runners, reception etc. Even more so if its employees rather than FTE given many will be part time staff.

The slightly higher end places around our way, decent size places, have an average of just over 50 employees each so you only need 5 sites to be above the threshold. Some Michelin starred restaurants own more sites than that and you'd hardly say that they dont contribute to innovation or creativity.

As to the original article... its rather blinkered to think that its not creative to try and achieve the same/better results whilst being more conscious of added sugar/salt etc. Plus going to places that are truly creative tends not to be a daily occurrence for most of us and a fair proportion will accept its a blow out when we do.

I am sure it will cause some harm to those with eating disorders etc, even though you can technically ask for a calorie count free menu. Its an unfortunately reality in life that almost all well intentioned changes will have some negative impact on some if you search hard enough.
 
Sandtree said:
Clearly it depends on what level of service you are intending to deliver etc but its really not that hard to hit 250 employees for a small restaurant group when you consider they're open 7 days a week, 2 shifts at least a day, chefs, porters, bar staff, waiters, runners, reception etc. Even more so if its employees rather than FTE given many will be part time staff.

The slightly higher end places around our way, decent size places, have an average of just over 50 employees each so you only need 5 sites to be above the threshold. Some Michelin starred restaurants own more sites than that and you'd hardly say that they dont contribute to innovation or creativity.

As to the original article... its rather blinkered to think that its not creative to try and achieve the same/better results whilst being more conscious of added sugar/salt etc. Plus going to places that are truly creative tends not to be a daily occurrence for most of us and a fair proportion will accept its a blow out when we do.

I am sure it will cause some harm to those with eating disorders etc, even though you can technically ask for a calorie count free menu. Its an unfortunately reality in life that almost all well intentioned changes will have some negative impact on some if you search hard enough.
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Michelin star chefs open different restaurants but generally have an independent business model for each otherwise they would be classified as a franchise, which do fall under those guidelines.

The problem as I see it is the proliferation of highly palatable ultra processed foods that taste amazing and on a hormonal level effect the way and how much we eat. It really doesn't matter how long or how detailed the nutrient content is displayed for all to see because it's been going on for decades with obesity on a steady rise along with the increase in highly processed foods that data suggests that on average people consume around 88% of those wonderfully delicious foods (sarcasm lol) . We are what we eat, and it's not surprised where the health of nations are going considering what they're eating. cheers
 
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