Calorie labels on restaurant and takeaway food do not reduce how many calories people buy or eat, a new study has suggested.
The mandatory labels, which were introduced by the government in 2022, forced all out-of-home food outlets with more than 250 employees to show the calories in their food, in a bid to tackle obesity.
However, according to a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour, the labelling made no difference to how many calories people bought or ate.
The eating disorder charity Beat told Sky News the study proves the “dangerous and ineffective policy” cannot be justified.
“These findings reflect what we already knew: calorie labelling on menus has had negligible benefit to the general population but is so damaging to people with eating disorders that it cannot be justified,” said Beat’s director of external affairs, Tom Quinn.
Calling for the government to scrap the policy, he added: “For those with eating disorders, calorie labelling can worsen feelings of anxiety and stress and lead to harmful behaviours such as binge eating, exercising excessively or restricting food.
“Going out for meals is also an integral part of eating disorder recovery and having calories on display can make this much more challenging and keep people unwell for longer.”
For the study, Dr Megan Polden from the University of Liverpool surveyed more than 6,000 people who bought food in more than 330 outlets, including pubs, restaurants, cafes and fast food outlets.
They surveyed the customers before the changes were introduced and after, but found the labels had made no significant impact on how many calories they ate.
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The labels did make people more aware of how many calories were in their food, however, even if it didn’t then change what they ate.
“Our research indicates that calorie labelling alone might not have a significant impact on people’s eating and the number of calories they purchased and consumed,” Dr Polden told Sky News, although she added there may have been other factors at play.
The policy was introduced during the COVID pandemic, and people may have had a more “treat yourself” mindset by the time Dr Polden’s survey was done.
Also, crucially, only 15% of the companies she researched for a separate study had actually fully implemented the policy.
And 20% had not implemented it at all.
A separate study, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, also found that as a result of the labelling, food outlets did remove some high calorie items from their menus, as well as introducing lower calorie items.
“With a combination of all the factors such as improved business compliance measures and public education, [food labelling] might be able to then support healthier consumer choices,” she said.
Sky News approached the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.