NHS Fife: Scottish council plans to order takeaways to shrink fish supper portions to tackle obesity

A Scottish council is looking to shrink the size of fish suppers in a bid to tackle rising obesity levels.

Fife Council and NHS Fife are working together on a raft of measures to tackle obesity in the region, including telling takeaways to reduce their portion sizes.

Other plans include “excluding unhealthy food” from being advertised on billboards and to “explore the feasibility of advertising healthy foods”.

This comes as the Scottish Government looks at proposals to reduce the amount of high salt items on sale, potentially banning buy-one, get-one-free deals on sweets and crisps, and ending meals deals with high-fat products.

Dr Joy Tomlinson, director of public health at NHS Fife, said the health board wanted to “explore” the potential for “place-based approaches to planning and collaborative working to create healthy places and spaces”.

She said: “Evidence from the Scottish burden of disease study shows us that the health of Fife’s population would be improved if everyone were to eat a healthier diet and stay as active as possible.

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“Portion sizes tend to be bigger, resulting in greater caloric intake when eating out of home compared to eating at home. Takeaways and full-service restaurants have lots of scope for calorie reduction and helping communities achieve a healthy weight."

In a report, Dr Tomlinson said a “lack of confidence and poor cooking skills and lack of food knowledge” was contributing to “lower fruit and vegetable intake and higher intake of high fat, high sugar foods and processed foods by people in Fife”.

Read more: The 21 best fish and chip shops in Scotland - according to The Scotsman readers

She said: “Improved access to affordable healthy food is crucial to making improvements in what people eat.”

The health board, local authority and Fife Health and Social Care Services are now looking at potentially launching a pilot scheme “to work with the out-of-home sector to explore understanding among retailers of the calories on their menus, and options to reduce these including portion size reduction”.