The Public Health Responsibility Deal Out of Home Calorie Labelling - an overview for teachers

1. The Public Health Responsibility DealOut of Home Calorie Labelling - an overview for teachers

2. The Public Health Responsibility Deal • The Responsibility Deal taps into the potential for businesses and other organisations (e.g. NGOs, Public Health Bodies, Academics) to improve public health – it is based on partnership. • Government action will continue–the Responsibility Deal supplements government action. • The government will continue to: develop national policy, define priorities, communicate public health messages, e.g. Change4Life. • Ultimately … • “Public health is everyone’s business”

3. The Responsibility Deal Networks • There are five networks: • Food • Alcohol • Physical Activity • Health at Work • Behaviour Change • Membership from industry (retailers, manufacturers, hospitality), NGO’s (public health bodies, civil society groups) and policymakers. • Charged with accelerating delivery of public health goals through greater use of business influence in the market and ability to engage with consumers.

4. Scope of the Food Network There are four key areas for action: Information to consumers (people) Content of food (product) Improving the availability of healthy food (place) Promotion of healthier food choices (promotions)

5. Food Network Pledges • To date the Food Network has agreed 3 collective pledges and 1 individual pledge: • Collective pledges • Out of Home Calorie Labelling • Salt Reduction • Artificial Trans Fats Removal • Individual pledge • Association of Convenience Stores – access to fruit & vegetables “The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has committed to work with its members to roll out Change4Life (C4L) branding into 1000 stores, learning from the successful ACS/DH programme to improve fruit and vegetable availability in deprived areas.”

6. The health context for the calorie labelling initiative • 1 in 6 meals is eaten outside of the home, and is estimated to contribute 20% and 25% of energy intake for adult women and men respectively. • The latest Health Survey for England (HSE) data shows us that nearly 1 in 4 adults (age 16 and over) are obese. • Out of Home Calorie (OOH) Labelling is intended to inform and empower people to make healthier choices, and to encourage OOH food businesses to make healthier options more available. • Some foods and drinks provide more energy than people think.

7. Evidence base • Evidence suggests that calorie labelling at point of choice makes consumers more aware of the energy content of food. • Evidence continues to emerge, few published studies show that calorie labelling impacts positively on purchasing behaviour where people see and use it. • New research from New York City (Dumanovsky et al 2011) • most extensive to date, published in the British Medical Journal. • assessed food purchases on the basis of till receipts from lunchtime customers across a large and random sample of outlets before and after the introduction of menu labelling. • No overall decline in calories purchased was observed for the full sample, several major chains (Au Bon Pain, KFC, McDonald's) saw significant reductions. • After regulation, one in six lunchtime customers used the calorie information provided, and these customers made lower calorie choices (average of 106kcal). • Accompanying editorial from Dr Susan Jebb, MRC .

8. What are businesses being asked to do? • The pledge asks companies to make a voluntary commitment to display calorie information (the amount of energy provided by a food) clearly and prominently on menus and/or menu boards per item/meal for standardised food and non alcoholic drinks. • The commitment is made by signing up to the Out of Home Calorie Labelling pledge as part of the Responsibility Deal. • Any company can sign up if they provide food or non alcoholic drink to customers in an out of home catering setting.

9. The pledge The OOH Calorie Labelling pledge: “We will provide calorie information for food and non alcoholic drink for our customers in out of home settings from 1 September 2011 in accordance with the principles for calorie labelling agreed by the Responsibility Deal.” The OOH Calorie Labelling pledge is an ongoing initiative – businesses can sign-up at any time.

10. Underpinning principles • Calorie information is displayed clearly and prominently at point of choice. • Calorie information is provided for standardised food and drink items sold, i.e. standardised means ’food offered for at least 30 days a year’. • Calorie information is provided per portion/item/meal; and for multi portion or sharing items the number of portions will also be provided. • Reference information on calorie requirement is displayed clearly, prominently and in a way that is appropriate for the consumer, e.g. “Women need around 2,000 and men 2,500 kcal a day, children need less".

11. Example 1: Quick Service Restaurant

12. Example 2: Deli bar

13. Example 3: Coffee board

14. Example 4: Restaurant menu

15. Guidance to support OOH Calorie Labelling • Technical guidanceon voluntary calorie labelling for catering businesses is available, providing support on regulatory and best practice advice to caterers on how to collect calorie information. • Illustrative guidanceon voluntary calorie labelling is also available. The guide: • recognises the distinctly varied nature of the catering sector which presents practical challenges to information provision. • offers practical advice and illustrations to assist catering businesses to apply calorie labelling in a flexible way suitable for all catering contexts. The technical guidance: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Publichealthresponsibilitydeal/BecomingaResponsibilityDealpartner/DH_126217 The illustrative guidance: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Publichealthresponsibilitydeal/BecomingaResponsibilityDealpartner/DH_126218

16. What types of businesses are signed up? A range of sectors, including: • Quick Service Restaurants/takeaways • Pub dining • Casual dining • Coffee/sandwich shops • Retailers • Contract caterers • Theme Parks • Business and industry

17. The other food pledges • As well as the OOH pledge, the Food Network have also developed pledges on salt reduction and artificial trans fats removal. • Salt reduction: The salt targets for the end of 2012 agreed by the Responsibility Deal, which collectively will deliver a further 15% reduction on 2010 targets.  • Artificial Trans Fat Removal: These type of fats have already been removed, or will be removed, from products by the end of 2011.

18. Further information and contacts Information on pledges and companies signed up can be found at: http://responsibilitydeal.dh.gov.uk Document with further details on all the pledges: http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_125082.pdf Calorie labelling (on menus) pledge Details can be found on page 3 of the above pledge document PDF. Removal of artificial trans fats and salt reduction pledges Details can be found on page 11 and 7 of the above PDF. Acknowledgement The British Nutrition Foundation would like to acknowledge the Department of Health for the use of these slides. September 2011 www.foodafactoflife.org.uk