The State of Queensland has announced plans to introduce new legislation requiring fast food outlets to display the energy content of foods and drinks on their menus – a move which has already been voluntarily pre-empted by several of Australia’s major fast food chains. Several major quick service food chains in Australia now voluntarily display energy contents on their menus, including Subway, Hungry Jacks, Domino’s, and McDonald’s. Similar to laws are already in place in NSW and the... ...Read more »

New research from Harvard University, in the U.S., has shown that cooked meat provides more energy than raw meat. The researchers claim their findings suggest cooking played a pivotal role in human evolution by increasing the energy content of some foods. Conducted by Rachel Carmody, a student in Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research also raises... ...Read more »

McDonald’s UK is the latest multinational chain to display the calorific content of items on its UK menus. Australian Food News can reveal that McDonald’s Australia plans to follow suit by displaying the kilojoule content of items on its restaurant menus across Australia later this year. McDonald’s UK is supporting a UK government initiative to tackle obesity by introducing calorific content information to its UK restaurant menus. Others supporting the UK initiative include KFC, Pizza Hut and... ...Read more »

Spicing up your daily diet with some red pepper can curb appetite, especially for those who don’t normally eat the popular spice, according to research from Purdue University. “We found that consuming red pepper can help manage appetite and burn more calories after a meal, especially for individuals who do not consume the spice regularly,” said Richard Mattes, distinguished professor of foods and nutrition who collaborated with doctoral student Mary-Jon Ludy. “This finding... ...Read more »

US dairy giant Dean Foods has jumped on the healthy food and drink bandwagon, launching a health campaign that includes the reformulation of their flavoured milk drinks.Recognising that consumers are now focusing not just on fat content of products, but also on sugar, the ‘Start Right End Right’ campaign sees Dean Foods’ milk drinks reformulated with 10-15% fewer calories and 20-25% less sugar. The flavoured milks now contain 150 calories and 22 grams of sugar per serving. A fat-free... ...Read more »

Diet and exercise have long been the top two elements of effective weight loss. Now add a third: reading the labels on packaged foods. Washington State University Economist Bidisha Mandal has found that middle-aged Americans who want to lose weight and who take up the label-reading habit are more likely to lose weight than those who don’t. In some cases, label reading is even more effective than exercise. “I’m finding that reading labels is useful,” said Mandal, an assistant... ...Read more »

Has the long-sought magic potion in society’s “battle with the bulge” finally arrived? An appetite-control agent that requires no prescription, has no common side effects, and costs almost nothing? Scientists today reported results of a new clinical trial confirming that just two 8-ounce glasses of the stuff, taken before meals, enables people to shed pounds. The weight-loss elixir, they told the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), is ordinary water. “We... ...Read more »

Kraft Foods announced plans to significantly increase the whole grain content in its leading Nabisco cracker brands, more than doubling the amount of whole grain currently used across the Nabisco portfolio. Over the next three years, some of America’s favorite cracker brands, including Wheat Thins, Honey Maid, Premium and Ritz will include more whole grain. By 2013, the company expects Nabisco crackers will contribute more than 9 billion servings of whole grain to American diets each year.”Nine... ...Read more »

A clutch of the largest US food makers, including General Mills, Nestle and PepsiCo, have pledged to cut 1.5 trillion of calories by the end of 2015. The companies announced the plans on Monday as part of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation coalition, which is headed by Kellogg president and CEO David Mackay. “Through this effort, the companies that make up the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation will provide consumers with additional healthier food options that help them achieve and... ...Read more »

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, the US unit of Tesco, this week launched Eatwell, a new line of more nutritious products. All eatwell products contain no more than 25% of the daily values (based upon a 2,000 calorie diet) for calories, fat, saturated fat and sodium. Eatwell also contains no artificial colors or flavors, and no added trans fats. Building on the success of fresh&easy’s Kitchen range, the company launched 17 new eatwell products made fresh in the company’s Riverside,... ...Read more »