Hospitals are being told to sell healthier food in vending machines and to provide calorie counts for food sold in their restaurants and coffee shops as part of new anti-obesity measures.

Prof Donal O'Shea, who is a member of the Government's Special Action Group on Obesity, said the HSE has insisted that outlets selling snacks and meals in hospitals must display calories on their menus.

"This is important, because in hospitals people would tend to be a bit more health aware, and people will be able to find out that say, the muffin they are buying might have 500 calories."

"In another initiative, there will be a policy change within the HSE, where vending machines in health premises will have to stock more healthy items than unhealthy ones. I believe this will be introduced this year," Prof O'Shea said.

He said that progress on implementing calorie-counting in restaurants in general has been 'achingly slow'.

However, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) is about to launch a calculator that will allow restaurants to assess calorie content in the meals they provide and inform the customer accordingly, Prof O'Shea told irishealth.com

"This is expected to be launched by the Minister before Easter. The calculator will allow restaurants to type in the ingredient, the amount of it, the way it has been cooked, and that will give then a good estimate of the calorie count within about 25%."

Prof O'Shea says calorie counting was a simple but important measure, and that was why it had been so opposed by sections of the restaurant and food industry in the United States and in Ireland.

In an interview with irishhealth.com, he warns of Ireland's obesity problem becoming a 'pandemic'.

View the full interview here