Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How shops supersized our portions
FOOD portions have more than doubled in the past 25 years, a Mirror investigation has found.
The size of many everyday foods such as ready meals, family bags of crisps and shop-bought sandwiches have ballooned, contributing to soaring rates of diabetes and obesity.
A government publication from 1993 called Food Portion Sizes, issued by the Food Standards Agency, shows just how big the increases are. Our photos illustrate the stark difference between products then and now. In 1993, a typical supermarket shepherd’s pie for one weighed 210g. But today’s portion comes in at 450g, over twice the size.
An average frozen chicken curry and rice for one weighed just 290g but the meal is now a hefty 550g.
Packaged sandwiches have grown from an average of 185g for cheese and pickle to 250g.
And a typical shopbought medium cheese and tomato pizza that weighed 200g 25 years ago has now doubled in size. While many chocolate treats have famously shrunk in recent years, other supermarket staples are growing.
It is widely thought that manufacturers are increasing portion sizes to encourage people to consume more and therefore spend more.
Public Health England last week announced it will order manufacturers to cut portion sizes and change recipes, after studies found obese children eat up to 500 calories a day more than they need.
And Cambridge University experts say big portions encourage adults to overeat. Obesity has doubled in two decades – 63% of UK adults and a fifth of children are now overweight or obese, costing the NHS an estimated £61billion a year.
Duncan Selbie, head of PHE, said: “On average, we need to eat less.”
PHE chief nutritionist Dr Alison Tedstone said: “We are challenging the food industry to take 20% of the calories out of everyday foods.”