Contract caterers sign up to Northern Ireland calorie pilot scheme

The Mount Charles Group and Sodexo have signed up to take part in a six-month pilot scheme called Caloriewise that aims to encourage consumers to make more informed choices when eating out. It started on May 1st and will run until October 31st. Other businesses that will take part include The Streat, Ireland's fastest growing franchise café network, Botanic Inns, and three local health trusts. Sodexo account director Barry Ambrose and executive chef Cathy Adamson represented Sodexo NI at the launch of Caloriewise. The caterer's head of nutrition and dietetics Wan Mak has also worked with the FSANI dietary health team in preparing the trial. Barry Ambrose said: "As part of our corporate social responsibility commitments, we believe strongly in enabling our consumers to make informed food choices. "We are very fortunate to have in-house dietetic expertise to analyse the thousands of recipes used by our chefs which many smaller outlets/companies may not have. "Calorie labelling is a very important part of the company's Healthwise initiative, a nutrition, wellbeing and lifestyle philosophy underpinning the company's commitment to healthy eating and living." Sodexo's staff restaurants at the Police Service of Northern Ireland Garnerville in Belfast and Teleperformance in Bangor are the two pilot sites for the initiative and progress will be monitored over the next six months. The calorie content of items will be displayed clearly and prominently at the point of choice, in menus and on menu boards. The recommended daily calorie intake is 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women.