With Mother’s Day approaching, the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) said yesterday that several coffee shop chains had agreed to label their cake products with the number of calories they contain.
Data published by the Department of Health shows that the recommended daily calorie intake for females aged between 19 and 69 is between 1,500 and 2,300 calories a day, while males in this age group should consume between 1,750 and 2,850 calories.
“Some cakes, like blueberry cheesecake, can contain more than 300 calories per slice. This means that a woman eating one slice will consume about one-fifth of her recommended daily calorie intake,” said Liu Chin-fang (劉清芳), head of the commission’s Department of Supervision and Coordination.
Although packaged foodstuffs are required by the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to be labeled with calorie counts, ingredients and other nutritional information, whole cakes and cakes sold by the slice are not required to have such labeling.
The commission talked to several coffee shop chains last Friday and advised them to label the number of calories in their cakes, either in the form of total calories or calories per 100g, Liu said.
Despite not being a legal requirement, all of the chains agreed to do so, although they said it would take some time to coordinate with their suppliers on calculating the values.
Starbucks and Mr. Brown, which will have calorie labeling on their cakes as early as the end of this month, are among the first businesses to adopt the practice, Liu said.
As for other restaurants, cafes, bakeries and shops that sell cakes, Liu said she hoped they would cooperate if customers start to inquire about calorie information.
In related news, the commission reminded consumers that under the Civil Code they can demand reimbursement in the form of a cake or a subsitute product if they do not receive cakes or other goods they have ordered.
For example, if a person who ordered a NT$1,000 cake to be delivered on Mother’s Day does not receive the cake and is forced to purchase another for NT$1,200 as a replacement, the shop involved should offer the customer a 100 percent refund of NT$1,000.
The shop should also reimburse the customer the NT$1,200 for the substitute cake, making a total of NT$2,200.
If the customer paid a deposit instead of the full amount to hold the order, the shop should offer a refund equal to double the amount of the deposit, Liu said.
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