Prime Minister’s Mia Amor Mottley’s earlier call for a calorie counter to assess the nutritional value in popular Barbadian delicacies, like cou-cou and pudding and souse, may soon be a reality through a partnership with soft drink manufacturer Coca- Cola.
Addressing attendees at the National Transformation Initiative’s Growing Together Small Business Training Programme at Hilton Barbados recently, Ms. Mottley disclosed 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 to assist citizens to make sensible food choices.
She shared that during a meeting late last year with BBC to discuss the training initiative, the issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the need for a calorie counter were discussed.
The Prime Minister repeated her concerns about the rising levels of NCDs plaguing Barbados and the rest of the region, and commended BBC for taking action by lowering the amount of sugar in its products and introducing more flavoured water options.
However, Ms. Mottley insisted that the absence of this information “meant that a number of people have ended up as diabetics unknowingly and unwittingly”.
She added: How many calories in cou-cou and red herring…in a roti…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.
“We have a diabetes epidemic and if we don’t get on top of it, the money that we need to be able to do roads, other infrastructure or schools will be taken away because you’ve got to find money for expanded numbers of patients on dialysis….”
The 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 500 fruit, vegetable, food and beverage and coconut vendors.