KEY POINTS:
Chip lovers, be prepared to see a scoop of your golden delight shrink by a quarter, as food and health groups promote new standards for chip shops.
Health experts will today tell the launch of the Chip Group's standards for deep fried chips that the average size of a scoop of chips has mushroomed from 330g on average to 440g, in just nine years.
The standards urge New Zealand's 1600 independent takeaway shops to prune back to a uniform 330g serving, rather than the current scoop, which can range from 100g to 1kg.
"When you go into a shop you don't know what you're going to get in a serving of chips," Judith Morley-John, a nutritionist at the Heart Foundation - a member of the Chip Group - said yesterday.
The standards reiterate what the Chip Group has been trying to achieve for a decade through industry training, advice to shops and its best chip shop competitions.
New Zealanders chow down seven million serves of chips a week and fish and chips remains one of our most popular takeaway meals, but most fast-food outlets still fry in traditional beef tallow.
The standards are silent on fat type, but tallow is not recommended by the Heart Foundation because it is high in saturated fat, which links it to an increased risk of cholesterol problems and heart disease.
"Chip shops that follow the standards can reduce the fat content of cooked chips by up to 20 per cent," said Judith Morley-John. "If all shops used the recommended frying techniques, we could potentially remove over 2500 tonnes of fat from the national food supply."
This could help to avoid obesity, another risk factor for heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
She said the aim was for shops to reduce chips' fat content from the national average of 11, to 9.2 per cent. However, the winner of last year's best chip shop competition produced chips with just 3.7 per cent fat.
McDonald's and some other fast-food chains will not comply with the voluntary standards because they sell skinny chips, which soak up more fat.
A week before the launch of the standards, McDonald's re-publicised its million-dollar-a-year switch to a canola and sunflower oil blend, leaving its fried foods with much less saturated fat and virtually no trans-fat.
McDonald's is encouraging consumers to ask its competitors to follow this move, but is not changing the size of its chips, which are 18 per cent fat.
"Thin fries are always going to have more fat than fat fries," said the chain's communications manager, Kate Porter. "Our fries are recognised around the world and loved around the world. What we've done is make them the best they can be."
Ivan Posa, owner of the Codfather fish and chips shop in Birkenhead, said he had long used the methods advocated in the new standards to fry good chips and minimise their fat absorption.
SHOP STANDARDS
Deep-fried chips should be:
* Thick, straight-cut and at least 13mm wide.
* Cooked in well-maintained fat/oil at 175-180C for 3 to 4 minutes.
* Shaken vigorously in their basket and hung for at least 20 seconds.
* Unsalted - salt should be in a sachet.
* 330g a scoop.
TAKE YOUR ORDER?
* New Zealand has about 1600 independent takeaway food outlets, the target of the standards.
* There are also around 800 quick-service restaurants, such as KFC, and 1000 lunch bars.
