Page 46 - ABFI March 19 issue

News
News
Round-up-up
Round
Fast-food is getting, pushing up the obesity rate restaurants are counting on
One possible reason is that
among adults in the US.
saltier and heavier Big picture bigger sundaes and cookies
as a way of increasing the
The new study suggests amount spent on each order
the problem is getting worse. and attracting more customers,
Across the 10 chains, the said Darren Seifer, a food and
researchers found, the average beverage industry analyst at
entree weighed 39 gm more in NPD. The researchers found
2016 than in 1986 and had 90 that there were 42 more calories
more calories. It also had 41.6 on average in items like chips,
percent of the recommended soups and french fries in 2016
daily allotment of sodium, up thantherewerein1986.Sodium
from 27.8 percent. content rose to 23.2 percent
Customers could be of the recommended daily
forgiven for not knowing. allotment from 11.6 percent,
Local governments have even though portion size did
adopted menu-labelling not grow substantially.
initiatives that require fast-
food restaurants to list calorie A system to help
counts for the items they Consumed together as a
ast-food chains have tried Burger King, Carl's Jr, Dairy sell, but such measures have single meal, the study found,
Ffor years to woo health- Queen, Hardee's, Jack in the faced substantial opposition, the average entree and side
conscious diners by mixing Box, KFC, Long John Silver's, including from the Food and account for nearly 40 percent
lighter fare like salads and McDonald's and Wendy's Drug Administration. of a 2,000 - calorie daily diet.
yogurt with the usual burgers, - from 1986 to 2016. In that "The restaurants really The study mentions several
fried chicken and shakes. time, the number of items in haven't done enough," Megan proposals meant to help
But as menus swelled over those three categories rose 226 AMcCrory,thelead researcher, consumers scale back their
the past three decades with percent. said. "The big picture is that fast-food intake, including a
grilled chicken wraps and According to the study - there have been some positive system that would let them
'fresco' burritos, many options published in The Journal of changes, but they're small, order smaller portions at lower
grew in size and the calories the Academy of Nutrition and and overall, the changes have prices.
and sodium in them surged, Dietetics - even with lighter gotten worse." Whether the industry will
according to a new study items in the mix, fast food In 2016, the average fast- embrace such ideas is unclear.
from researchers at Boston menus are less healthy than food dessert weighed an In the meantime, menus
University and Tufts. they were 30 years ago. extra 71 gm and had 186 more continue to grow, sometimes
The researchers studied The fat and salt content calories than the average blurring the line between
1,787 entrees, sides and and the sheer size of fast-food dessert 30 years earlier, the entree and side.
desserts at 10 chains - Arby's, meals are often blamed for researchers found.

Packaging firm Uflex IndiaPlast show asked me why we don’t have
At IndiaPlast 2019, Uflex
a demonstration unit so that
develops plastic recycling put up a demonstration unit people can see it is possible,
to recycle multi-layer plastic
and we decided to showcase
tech packaging waste into pellets it at IndiaPlast,” Chaturvedi
that can be used for making
said.
useful products. “With our demo unit at the
flex Ltd, one of India’s “It is true that plastics “We first demonstrated IndiaPlast exhibition, we have
Ubiggestflexiblepackaging take a long time to degrade. this technology nearly 25 years shown that plastic is recyclable.
companies, has developed a But it is possible to turn this ago and won recognition for The pellets produced from
simple, cost-effective method long shelf life of plastic into this at Davos in 1995. We have recycled plastics can be used
to convert used plastics into an advantage using the right been using the technology to for making buckets, mugs and
pellets that can be used for technology,” said Uflex CMD recycle plastic scrap generated dustbins; park benches; tiles
making products used in Ashok Kumar Chaturvedi. during manufacturing at our and tables; and roads and road
daily life. plants. Recently, some people dividers,” he said.

46 March 2019 AgriBusiness & Food i ndustr y