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

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.

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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 Oliver’s organisation.

Some takeaway meals contain more calories in one sitting than the recommended amount – 2,000 for women and 2,500 for men – someone should have in an entire day, according to research reported in the Guardian in June .

The researchers also found that only three of the 19 companies studied – Dominos, Pizza Express and Pret a Manger – publicly discloses information about the nutritional makeup of their products. Ten did not make ingredient information available, 10 did not say what the nutritional composition was per 100g and nine did not disclose how much fibre they included.

Dr Kawther Hashem, Action on Sugar’s head of research and impact, said it was “absurd” that consumers know what is in the food they buy in supermarkets, but “when eating out we are left in the dark. If companies continue to hide their nutrition information, there is little hope for consumers to choose the healthier options.”

The department of health and social care has been contacted for comment.

Earlier this year, Wes Streeting, then Labour’s shadow health secretary, publicly warned “highly manipulative” food firms that they had to reformulate their products to make them healthier. “You either get on board the steamroller or you’re going under it,” he said.

However, Labour’s election manifesto contained no plans to achieve that objective.

Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of UK Hospitality, which represents the “out of home” sector, pointed out that the research had found a majority (54%) of the 190 products were healthy, according to the nutrient profile model, which the government adopted in 2004.

“Hospitality strives to offer a wide range of options for customers to pick from, from a salad for lunch to a treat on a special occasion, and takes care to offer healthy and nutritious options on their menus.

“By law, all businesses analysed in this report are required to include a calorie count next to each menu item and others go further to provide more nutritional information, to help customers make informed decisions.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government will take action to prevent ill-health and tackle the obesity crisis head on, protecting the NHS and helping people to live well for longer.

“We will shift our focus from treatment to prevention by introducing tight restrictions on advertising junk food, alongside banning children from being able to purchase sugary, high-caffeine energy drinks.”

Dr Monique Tan, the lead researcher, gave the five following dishes as examples of the products sold in “out of home” outlets that emerged from the analysis as unhealthy, as judged by the three different government-endorsed methods of nutritional measurement. All have an “unbalanced nutrient profile”.

• Pizza Hut’s pepperoni feast - “excessive” amounts of total fat, saturated fat and salt and more calories than is seen as ideal under government guidelines

• Burger King’s Memphis BBQ king double - too much total fat, saturated fat and salt

• Fino pitta at Nando’s - high levels of total fat, saturated fat and salt, and also too many calories

• Halloumi-style fries at JD Wetherspoon - “excessive” amounts of salt, saturated fat and total fat

• Pret a Manger’s ham and greve baguette - too much salt, saturated fat and total fat, and also too many calories, as judged against official nutritional analysis criteria.

• This article was amended on 10 August 2024 to correct the figures about the number of outlets that publicly disclose information about the nutritional makeup and ingredients of their products.