U.K. researchers have published the findings of a comparison of calorie counts on menu items in restaurants that feature labeling of those counts and in restaurants without such labeling. Dolly R.Z. Theis & Jean Adams, "Differences in energy and nutritional content of menu items served by popular UK chain restaurants with versus without voluntary menu labelling: A cross-sectional study," PLOS One, October 16, 2019. The researchers compared offerings from "the 100 most popular UK restaurant chains by sales" and found that 42% of the restaurants offered nutritional information, and 13 of those voluntarily provided menu labeling. The researchers were reportedly able to establish that restaurants that provide calorie labeling on menus offered food with 45% less fat and 60% less salt, though they could not identify whether the labeling caused the companies to formulate products with lower fat and salt contents.
Tag Archives salt
The World Hypertension League has issued a policy statement in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension arguing that salt sold for consumption "should be required to have a front of package health warning label." The article argues that high sodium consumption has been linked to many negative health risks and that reducing excess sodium is a target of the World Health Organization. "Some countries have banned restaurants from putting salt shakers on tables to reduce spontaneous addition of sodium to foods and increase awareness of the dangers of high‐sodium diets (eg, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico City)," the policy statement asserts. "To our knowledge, no country has required actual packages and containers of sodium chloride (salt) to have warning labels." The organization argues that warning labels would have "several potential benefits": (i) "it would increase awareness of the dangers of high‐sodium diets by people purchasing sodium and a reminder of the dangers by…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance for industry on the use of "potassium chloride salt" on food labels as an acceptable alternative to the use of the common or usual name "potassium chloride." The guidance indicates that the agency recognizes that food manufacturers "wishing to reduce sodium chloride in their products sometimes use substitute ingredients that provide similar taste and technical functions of sodium chloride in foods," including potassium chloride, which is generally recognized as safe for use as a flavor enhancer, flavoring agent, nutrient supplement, pH control agent, stabilizer and thickener. Comments on the draft guidance will be accepted until July 19, 2019.
