Pub chains commit to healthy eating

Six of the Britain's leading pub restaurant chains have agreed to reduce salt and saturated fats in a bid to help people eat more healthily outside the home.

JD Wetherspoon, Greene King, Marston's Inns & Taverns, Mitchells & Butlers, the Spirit Group and Whitbread have all committed to work with the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The companies serve more than a million meals every day.

The projects designed by the pub chains include:

• Working with suppliers to reduce salt and saturated fat levels, and remove trans fats in best-selling products.

• Bringing together new teams, and launching new projects to develop long-term plans for making their menus healthier.

• Launching training for kitchen and serving staff on nutrition and healthy cooking practices.

• Offering more menu choice — with new healthier options, a wider range of alternatives to chips, increasing the amount of vegetables served with meals, reducing the number of fried dishes on the menu, and even pricing healthy options below their other meals.

• Swapping sauces, dressings and frying oils for alternatives that are lower in saturated fat.

• Making nutritional information more readily available to customers — in some cases gathering information for the first time.

Each company has agreed to provide a six month update to the FSA on the progress of this work.

"We're delighted that these pubs have decided to work alongside us, because it shows that caterers can make some really positive changes without taking the pleasure out of a special occasion," said FSA head of nutrition Rosemary Hignett.

"These new commitments build on a lot of good work that has been under way for some time, and we are sure that other pub restaurant chains will see what is happening and want to get involved too."

In November last year, commitments were also published by six leading quick service restaurants, Burger King, McDonald's, KFC, Wimpy, Subway and Nandos.