Government seeks commitments on calorie counts, salt and trans fats – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say
Government seeks commitments on calorie counts, salt and trans fats The Government has brokered a voluntary scheme for restaurants, take-aways and food suppliers to improve the healthiness of their offer and has already solicited commitments from members of its Food Network, including McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Subway, Mars, PepsiCo and Unilever. It is asking fast-food outles, take-aways, cafés, pubs, sandwich shops and staff canteens to sign up to put calorie counts on their menus from September. It also wants both restaurants and food suppliers to eliminate harmful trans fats by the end of the year and to cut salt content by 15%. Although the drive is voluntary, Department of Health officials have said they are ready to legislate if the response is disappointing. - 19 February
Read the full articles in theDaily Express,the Independentand theTimes >>
KFC to launch griddled Brazer as part of health moves Fast-food chain KFC is spending £7m on new ovens in its 800 outlets in the UK and Ireland to launch the Brazer, its first food that is grilled rather than fried, as part of a move to improve its health credentials. Brazer options include a burger and tortilla-style wrap with fewer calories, salt and fat than its standard range. It also plans to show the calorie count of all foods on its menus from September and to reduce saturated fats across its range by 25%. It will achieve this by substituting palm oil sourced from threatened forests in Asia with rapeseed oils from Kent. The group is also changing its 50-year-old "finger-lickin' good" slogan to simply "So Good". - 20 February
Read the full article in theSunday Telegraph >>
InterContinental plans Chinese-branded chain The InterContinental Hotel Group is planning to launch a Chinese-style international brand to operate hotels throughout China and in destinations popular with Chinese travelers. It estimates that Chinese demand for hotel rooms will exceed demand from the US by 2025. Last year, the Chinese made 52 million international trips and 2.1 billion overnight trips within China - a figure expected to rise to six billion by 2020. At present, the proportion of hotels to people in China is just 0.003, compared with 0.015 in the USA. - 20 February
Read the full article in theObserver >>
Cinnamon Club plans three overseas branches The owner of Westminster's Cinnamon Club is hoping to open overseas branches in three more cities over the next five years, with New York, Shanghai and India among the likely locations. The group's chief executive and executive chef Vivek Singh said sister restaurant Cinnamon Kitchen was also earmarked for six new outlets by 2016. - 20 February
Read the full article in theIndependent on Sunday >>
Bannatyne raises funds to buy at least two new hotels Duncan Bannatyne is planning to acquire at least two new hotels and four gyms with the help of a £20m war chest he has built up from £16m of his own money and a £4m loan from Barclays. Unaudited accounts for last year showed that his hotel, gym and spa businesses boosted profits by 15% while turnover exceeded £100m, up from £98m in 2009. They also enjoyed a good start to 2011, with the hotel chain increasing like-for-like sales in January by 16%. - 20 February
Read the full article inScotland on Sunday >>
Anti-discrimination watchdog examines gay-only hotels The Equality and Human Rights Commission is investigating whether "gay-only" guesthouses breach new anti-discrimination laws related to the provision of goods or services. The watchdog said that the issue of Christian B&B owners discriminating against gay couples had been brought to its attention and that it now needed to establish an "objective balance" by determining whether gay-only venues discriminated against heterosexuals. It added that it had received no public complaints against such establishments. The owners of gay-only hotels feared they would be put out of business if obliged to let in heterosexuals who could make their core customers feel self-conscious. - 20 February
Read the full article in theSunday Telegraph >>
Morrisons poaches Waitrose chef The Morrisons supermarket chain has poached rival Waitrose's head chef Neil Nugent to improve its own-label foods. Nugent trained at Sir Terence Conran's Bibendum restaurant, won a Michelin star at Pools Court in Leeds and worked as a chef on private yachts before joining Waitrose in 2008. - 19 February
Read the full article in theTimes >>
By Angela Frewin
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