Daily SumUp

More than 75% of popular takeaway and restaurant food is unhealthy, study finds

Exclusive: Researchers say ‘hugely alarming’ analysis shows more action is needed to protect consumers

More than three-quarters of the bestselling dishes sold in high street takeaways, restaurants and coffee chains are unhealthy, as judged by government guidelines, a new study reveals.

Popular products such as pizzas, burgers, chicken dishes, fries and baguettes contain dangerously large amounts of fat, salt, sugar or calories that can damage health, the researchers say.

They came to their “hugely alarming” conclusions after analysing the nutritional content of the 10 top-selling items bought at 19 of the UK’s biggest “out of home” outlets, including chains such as Subway, Pizza Express, McDonald’s, Greggs, Starbucks and Pret a Manger.

Anywhere between 46% and 78% of the 190 dishes examined were deemed unhealthy, depending on which of three different government-backed ways of judging the nutritional quality of food was applied. These were the long-established nutrient profiling model, the traffic light labelling used by many supermarkets and the metrics that underpin the sugar tax and the previous government’s drives to encourage food manufacturers to include less salt, sugar or calories in their products.

The findings have prompted renewed calls for ministers to force the food industry to make its products healthier because bad diet is a leading cause of cancer, heart disease and other killers.

“The dominance of unhealthy foods and drinks in the out of home sector is hugely alarming. While healthier options exist, this food environment makes it hard for people to make healthier choices”, said Dr Monique Tan, a lecturer in public health nutrition at Queen Mary University of London, who led the research.

The unhealthy nature of so many of the most popular products at sit-in and take-out chains is a particular concern because people in Britain are eating out increasingly often. They are estimated to visit “out of home” outlets 2.4bn times a year.

Food bought in these outlets makes up as much as 11% to 25% of the calories Britons consume, over half of which come from the larger chains, other research has found.

“What we eat when we’re outside of home is completely dependent on what’s available and what’s affordable. The problem is that a lot of the food is not healthy,” added Tan.

“People used to see eating out as an occasional treat and that’s no longer the case. As a nation we eat more and more ‘out of home’ food. Given the majority of the food available ‘out of home’ is not healthy, it’s very likely that when you do go out to dine or have takeaway food, you will be having food that is harmful to your health.”

Tan identified five dishes that were found to be unhealthy according to all the different metrics and combinations of them: Pizza Hut’s pepperoni feast pizza, Burger King’s Memphis BBQ king double, Nando’s fino pitta containing grilled chicken and halloumi cheese, halloumi-style fries at Wetherspoon’s pubs and Pret a Manger’s ham and greve baguette.

They were classified as unhealthy on account of their “unbalanced nutrient profiles” – because they contain large amounts of calories, sugar, saturated fat or salt and small quantities of fibre, protein, fruits, vegetables and nuts per 100g, Tan said.

The large portions some chains provide also lead to diners consuming a lot of salt, sugar, fat or calories, the research team added in a 22-page report detailing their findings. They also included experts from food advocacy groups Action on Sugar, the Obesity Health Alliance and Bite Back, the campaigning arm of Jamie