Fast food industry menus healthier

Australia's fast food industry says it is responding to calls for healthier menu
offerings, while it admits to not being "experts in health and nutrition".
The fast food chains were working behind the scenes to reformulate and reduce the
"negatives" of their meals, an expert gathering in Sydney was told on Wednesday.
Bruce Perkin, chief technical and innovation officer at Yum! Restaurants which owns
KFC and Pizza Hut, also said an unprecedented array of consumer information was now
available to the public.
He spoke on behalf of the industry's new nutrition-focused umbrella group - the QSR
(Quick Service Restaurant) Forum - also announced on Wednesday at the meeting called
by the NSW government.
"Today all members of the QSR Forum are transparent with the information on their
foods ... it's on websites, it's on brochures in stores and it's on packaging," Mr
Perkin told the assembled public health experts, doctors, scientists and government
officials.
"All members of the QSR Forum are focusing on activity to reduce the negatives in
their product (and) all have reduced sodium and are looking to certain further
reductions."
Mr Perkin said McDonald's had kicked off this process "some years ago now" by
reducing the salt in its marinades, dressing and bread and it followed with a range
of salads and healthy options.
KFC removed the skin from its chicken fillet offerings to cut levels of fat from
2008, while from the end of this year the salt content of its buns would be reduced
20 per cent.
From 2012, Mr Perkin said KFC would use only low saturated fat cooking oil
nationally, while Pizza Hut would soon trial changes that would cut salt in its
pizzas by up to 40 per cent.
Similar initiatives were being rolled out by Hungry Jacks, Red Rooster and Oporto -
also members of the QSR Forum.
The subtle changes in taste did not always go unnoticed by consumers, Mr Perkin
said, yet fast food chains were continuing "because it was the right thing to do".
"I can assure you this is not easy - the frame that we all work in is a frame of
taste being critical," he said.
"If your products don't taste great then you don't have a business model anymore."
The meeting was triggered by rising concern over obesity and related disease in the
community.
The NSW government said its health spending was forecast to exceed the state's total
revenues by 2050 if costs continued to grow at the same pace seen in the past
decade.
The cost of treating obesity-related type 2 diabetes was also expected to increase
700 per cent from now to 2032.
NSW Premier Kristina Keneally told the gathering a "long-term shift in the health of
our population, as well as the health of our state and federal budgets" was needed
and the industry must play a significant role.
The Victorian government announced in June it would require fast food outlets to
publish kilojoule counts alongside menu items from 2012, while a federal review of
food labelling laws is also under way.
Mr Perkin said the industry supported a voluntary, and nationally consistent, code
which set targets for sugar, fat and salt in foods.
"Industry wants and needs your help," Mr Perkins told the experts assembled.
"We don't profess to be experts in health and nutrition - yes some of us do
understand a little of it and have qualifications in it, but we are not the experts.
"We do need third-party help in respect of setting the framework for what is the
right target."