Calorie labelling: New legislation for Energy declaration for the ‘Out of Home sector’ from April 6th, 2022

In an attempt to combat the obesity crisis, the UK government have introduced a scheme to assist consumers in making informed choices regarding foods consumed ‘out of home’ or purchased ‘out of home’ for consumption at home.

Who will be affected? 

This new legislation doesn’t affect any current nutrition labelling requirements but is attempting to capture those situations where labelling is not currently required but the consumer is needing to make an informed choice regarding calorie consumption. 

It is targeted to the following sectors for businesses with 250 or more employees:

• Restaurants
• Retailers selling non-pre-packaged and pre-packaged foods
• Take-away outlets
• Pubs and pub chains
• Bars, Cafés and coffee shop chains
• Contract caterers
• Sandwich bars
• Transport meals
• Supermarkets and their restaurants
• Any situation where food is either packaged or non-packaged and sold for immediate consumption.

The requirement is for calorie labelling on menus, shelves, and any online presence including websites and third-party delivery platforms.

This legislation doesn’t include or affect:

• Alcoholic beverages over 1.2% ABV
• Pre-packed cold drinks
• Single fresh fruits and vegetable that aren’t combined with another
• Businesses with fewer than 250 employees (franchises are included as one business unless there are no common foods)
• Establishments who provide ‘in house’ catering themselves including but not limited to, hospitals, military, educational, care homes, canteens, criminal justice, care homes & social care
• Foods that are only temporarily available (less than 30 days and less than 30 days a year)

A statement of an adult’s daily calorie intake must be clearly displayed at the point of selection i.e., menus, websites, shelves etc. and on every page, and reference the size of the portion e.g., per slice, piece, pack etc.  (‘Adults need around 2000 Kcal per day’)

The calorie information and statement must be clearly displayed, legible and not hidden or obscured by anything.  Portions must be meaningful to the consumer (per piece, scoop etc. as appropriate) and not just declared per 100g or per 100mls although this may be displayed as well.

And, at the express wishes of a client for a menu to exclude calorie content, the business/organisation may offer a menu without the Kcal (Kilocalorie) content

Local authorities will employ enforcement officers who will be conducting inspections and will be checking:

• The clearly observable presence of Kcal information for food and drink items that fall within scope of the policy
• That the Kcal information is displayed as per the requirements under the Regulation
• That the method businesses have used to calculate calorie content is considered appropriate and reliable
• That the calorie information is appropriately displayed on all and any online presence that the business may have.