Fewer than half of menu items offered by the UK’s largest restaurant chains meet the Government’s voluntary targets for reducing sugar, salt and calories, according to a new study led by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford.
Published today in PLOS Medicine, the study analysed nutritional information from more than 3,000 menu items across the 21 highest-grossing restaurant chains in the UK in 2024. Using PDF menus or nutritional information on restaurant websites, the researchers assessed whether foods met the Government’s voluntary reformulation targets, which aim to improve diets and reduce the risk of obesity and related diseases.
They found only 43% of menu items met all the targets they were eligible for, indicating that while healthier options are achievable, they are not yet the norm. Although 61% of items met calorie targets and 58% met salt targets, just 36% met sugar targets - pointing to clear gaps in overall nutritional quality in out-of-home food.
Adherence varied widely across restaurants and food categories. Nine of the 21 chains had more than half of their menu items meeting all applicable targets, while others fell well short. Salads and breakfast items were most likely to comply, whereas desserts and pizzas were among the least aligned with the targets.
Some major chains showed particularly low adherence to specific benchmarks, including calorie and salt limits, and several had no items meeting sugar targets at all. Menu items from Papa John’s were the lowest adhering to the calorie (35%) and salt (8%) targets, while menu items from Burger King, KFC, Nando’s, and Vintage Inns had zero adherence to the sugar targets.
“Interestingly, restaurants with similar menu styles performed quite differently in meeting the targets,” explained lead author Alice O’Hagan, a DPhil student in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. “This shows the nutritional quality of menus is not fixed by cuisine type, making the shift towards healthier menus a more attainable goal for food companies.”
In recent years, the UK Government has set a series of voluntary targets for manufacturers, retailers, and restaurants to reduce the sugar (to be met by 2020), salt (2024) and calorie (2025) content of food. The UK Government’s voluntary targets for sugar (to be met by 2020), salt (2024) and calories (2025) were introduced to encourage reformulation across the food industry. However, the findings suggest progress in the out-of-home sector has been inconsistent.
Senior author Dr Lauren Bandy, Researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences said: “Voluntary targets alone are not delivering consistent improvements in the salt, sugar or calorie content of food items on offer in UK restaurants. Our findings highlight the potential value of stricter regulation in the out-of-home sector and show that improving transparency and accountability of individual food companies will be key in supporting healthier food provision for the UK population.”
Eating out plays a significant role in UK diets, with most people buying food or drink from restaurants or takeaways each week. This makes the nutritional quality of out-of-home food a key public health concern. While the study found wide variation between restaurants offering similar types of food, it also shows that healthier reformulation is feasible within existing menus.
Although based on publicly available menu data and not purchasing patterns, the analysis provides an important benchmark for tracking progress. The findings add to growing evidence of the out-of-home sector’s influence on dietary health, as policymakers consider stronger measures to improve population diets.
Read the full article, 'Adherence to voluntary UK sugar, salt, and calorie reduction targets in the highest-grossing restaurant chains: A cross-sectional study' in PLOS Medicine.