If all goes according to plan, Barbadians will be able to find out how many calories they are consuming when they eat foods like cou-cou and pudding and souse.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley disclosed on Friday that beverage manufacturer and local franchise holder for the Coca-Cola brand of products, Barbados Bottling Company (BBC), has a prototype for a Coca-Cola Caribbean Calorie Counter that would help people become more aware of how many calories they consume daily and better manage their health.
“I have been told that the prototype is ready for review for the Coca-Cola Caribbean Counter,” she disclosed.
While company officials were unable to say when the tool would be rolled out, Barbados TODAY understands that the manufacturer will have several meetings about this next month, following further planning before the official launch.
Saying she was anticipating the calorie counter being made available to the public, the Prime Minister said: “How many calories in cou-cou and red herring? . . . . How many calories in a roti? . . . How many calories in oil down? How many calories in pudding and souse? How many calories in souse with one trotter or how many calories in trotter with nuff features?
“I look forward to the launch of the Coca-Cola Caribbean Calorie Counter, and I want to say to you that I suspect it will be of value not just in Barbados but across the entire region and make an appreciable difference to all of us.”
She was speaking on Friday at the Hilton Barbados Resort during the ceremony to launch the Growing Together Small Business Training Programme which is intended to support sustainable and efficient business enterprises across the country.
That initiative is being led by Coca-Cola Caribbean and BBC in partnership with the National Transformation Initiative (NTI) and is expected to impact about 1 000 traditional shop and mini mart operators and some 500 fruit, vegetable, food and beverage and coconut vendors.
Mottley disclosed that it was during a meeting late last year with BBC to discuss the training initiative that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the need for a calorie counter were discussed.
She again expressed concern about the rising levels of NCDs plaguing Barbados and the rest of the region, saying that while BBC has started to take action towards tackling this scourge by lowering the amount of sugar in its products and introducing more flavoured water options, there was still a lot more work to be done.
Last year, the Government increased the excise tax on sugary beverages to 20 per cent, a move designed to help Barbadians make healthier choices in beverage selection.
“One of the things I kept saying and issued challenges locally and regionally for, is that we need to know what we eat, what is in it, how many calories, how much sodium, how much salt, how much sugar. The absence of being able to capture those micronutrients and the calories, has meant that a lot of people have ended up as diabetics unknowingly and unwittingly,” said Mottley, declaring that the region had a diabetes epidemic.
“If we don’t get on top of it, the money we need to find to be able to do roads, other infrastructure and schools will be taken away because we are going to [need to] find money for expanded numbers of patients on dialysis”.
“If they are on dialysis it means that they probably can’t hold down a job properly and, therefore, you got to find money to support those families where the breadwinner has been impacted. So, all of these things come right around again,” she said.
(MM)
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