CALORIES ON MENUS LEGISLATION IS “NANNY-STATISM AT ITS BEST”

Proposed legislation that would force restaurants to display the calorie count of the food they serve on menus has been blasted by some industry groups. RAI CEO Adrian Cummins said that enforcing calorie count menus would cost the state tens of millions of euro to implement.

He added that chefs would spend more time doing paperwork than in the kitchen, which would do nothing to make the career more appealing when we are facing a chef shortage.

“It looks like this proposed legislation for presenting calories on menus is being rammed through by the Government with little thought about the negative effects it will have. This really is nanny-statism at its best,” he said.

The RAI is calling for education, not legislation. “We want to see Home Economics or Food Science equivalent mandatory in second-level and we need more comprehensive food education on the primary education syllabus.”