Question
Information is sought on a new initiative to help improve the availability of health foods.
The papers of the March 2025 meeting of the NHS Fife Clinical Governance Committee mentions a multi-agency pilot with retailers on calorie counts and portion sizes.
Reduction in Calories on Eating Out of Home Sector Menus
NHS Fife, the Fife HSCP and Fife Council to explore the feasibility of a pilot to work with the out of home sector to explore understanding among retailers of the calories on their menus, and options to reduce these including portion size reduction.
The following information is sought:-
· How will this pilot work and when and where it will begin?
· Will it be in a chosen town with a handful of retailers or broader than that?
· What sort of retailers are likely to be involved – small coffee shops or supermarket cafes?
· How long will it run and how will success be measured?
Answer
The reference cites from an earlier draft of our Director of Public Health’s Annual Report. The final draft of the report has since been published and is available on the NHS Fife website - Director of Public Health Report 2024 | NHS Fife.
NHS Fife Director of Public Health, Dr Joy Tomlinson, said: “We absolutely recognise the importance of factors like eating well, regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight have on the health and wellbeing of people in Fife. These are key priorities both locally and nationally, and we are committed to working with our partner agencies to promote these to help improve the overall health of the population we serve.
“Along with our partners in Fife Council and the Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, we are keen to take forward a range of initiatives to encourage physical activity an improve access to healthier diets. One of the areas we are exploring is potential links with Fife’s local hospitality industry to develop a pilot project which provides healthier menu choices when eating out.
“While this project is currently at a very early stage, we will be working with our partners to develop plans further in the coming months. Importantly, this is likely to be one of a number of initiatives we take forward to help improve the health of our population by tackling the barriers to healthy eating and promoting regular physical activity.”
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