Quality standard

Quality statement 2: Nutritional information at the point of choosing food and drink options

Quality statement

Children and young people, and their parents or carers, see details of nutritional information on menus at local authority and NHS venues.

Rationale

Providing details about the nutritional content of food will allow children and young people (and their parents or carers) to make an informed choice when choosing meals. This information will help people achieve or maintain a healthy weight by enabling them to manage their daily nutritional intake.

Quality measures

Structure

Evidence that local authorities and NHS organisations ensure that information on the nutritional content of meals is included on menus at venues that are used by children and young people.

Data source: Local data collection.

What the quality statement means for different audiences

Local authorities and NHS organisations ensure that their venues used by children and young people provide details about the nutritional content of menu items.

Children and young people (and their parents or carers) selecting meals in catering facilities in local authority and NHS venues have information on the nutritional content of meals to help them choose.

Definitions of terms used in this quality statement

Nutritional information

This includes details on the calorie content of meals as well as information on the fat, saturated fat, salt and sugar content. If the nutritional value of recipes is not known, ingredients should be listed and cooking methods described. [Adapted from expert consensus and NICE's guideline on type 2 diabetes prevention, recommendation 8]

Equality and diversity considerations

Information needs to be available in a variety of languages and formats to ensure that it is accessible to people of all ages and meets the needs of the community. Nutritional information should be available in a variety of formats appropriate to the target audience. The format of this information should be suitable for children and young people with sensory impairment.