GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — A senior Guyana health official today warned that restaurants and other eateries will soon be required to state the amount of energy each food item provides to consumers.

Guyana’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Karen Boyle, who was addressing a seminar for food handlers organised by the Food and Drug Department of the Ministry of Public Health, said the new initiative is part of efforts to ensure that people do not fall victim to non-communicable diseases.

“We are also moving to the point where we are going to want to have food industry, restaurants to be able to demonstrate what are the caloric values of the menus they have. People must again be able to tell, when they look at the menu, how much calories am I going to be taking in by this particular menu as against maybe another one,” she said, urging citizens to guard against the increasing use of fast foods even though they are cheaper, but unhealthy.

The health official said displaying the caloric content of the menus would allow consumers to make informed and healthy choices.

“The amount of the antibiotics that we are exposed to is not enough to treat anything that we have but what it does do is that it allows us to now develop resistance so that when we are suppose to use antibiotics to treat some disease that we have, the antibiotics would not work,” she said.

She said the Public Health Ministry wants the private sector to pay greater attention to the health of consumers instead of only generating profits.

“The Ministry of Public Health recognises the importance of private enterprise in the development of the country and the creation of jobs. We recognise the private sector as the growth engine of any free market economy. However, the need for profit must be balanced with the need to protect the health and safety of the public,” she said.