New menu rules leaves our taste
RESTAURANT, take-away and pub owners across the country are railing against Government proposals that all menus must feature a full calories count of all items on sale.
The Restaurant Association say that a consultation document just issued by the Department of Health strongly suggests that the measure will be introduced with or without the consent of the food-services sector.
A major concern is the amount of time chefs will have to spend on paperwork and the resulting limits that additional work might place on the creation of bespoke menus and daily specials.
Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI), said the organisation’s members are extremely concerned about the plans.
“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 also argues that the new regulations will be extremely costly, and difficult to actually enforce.
“Enforcing calorie count menus will cost the state tens of millions of Euro to implement, money that would quite frankly be better spent elsewhere,” said Mr Cummins.
“Chefs will also be spending more and more time doing paperwork than in the kitchen, which will do nothing to make the career more appealing when we are facing a chef shortage.”
The potential impact on smaller businesses, who already face significant costs in order to stay open, has also been severely criticised by the association.
“Yet again, the government are stifling small businesses who cannot afford the administration of this. It’s unacceptable,” Mr Cummins said.
“The Restaurants Association of Ireland have called on their members to make their voices heard and submit a submission to The Department of Health,” he concluded.