A healthy eating award for takeaways is being introduced by Bradford Council as part of a wide-ranging strategy to get people to eat better food.

One in six meals eaten across the district is bought from a takeaway or other eatery, and health chiefs are concerned about rising levels of obesity.

From next month, food establishments will be discouraged from offering ‘supersize’ portions and asked to offer a greater number of healthy options if they want to gain top marks in a new award scheme.

The Food Award will assess and score Bradford’s takeaways on the sizes of their meals and the number of healthy choices on their menus.

It forms part of the Council’s new Bradford District Food Strategy, aimed at tackling the growing levels of obesity and diet-related illnesses, like diabetes.

Coun Andrew Thornton, the executive member for environment, sport and sustainability, said the award would be available for takeaways to apply for, rather than something imposed on all eateries, to give customers helpful guidance on where they could go to get a healthy meal.

He said: “It’s about giving people the option so that if they’re wanting a takeaway or they’re wanting to eat out, they can see that a place has a really good number of healthy options that they can avail themselves of.”

Coun Thornton said the scheme would be a reward for good practice, rather than a crackdown on places that sold oversize portions or all-you-can-eat options.

He said: “There’s nothing we could do in that sense, in saying, ‘You are serving people too much food, or the portion sizes are too big’. There’s no regulation that covers that.”

The Council is also looking at how it can offer advice to new businesses on the benefits of serving healthy food to their customers when they are granted planning permission.

Tackling obesity was named as one of the district’s new public health priorities back in March.

Health bosses estimate that about 225,000 adults in the Bradford district are overweight or obese, with severely obese people likely to die on average 11 years earlier than those of a healthy weight.

There are also proportionally more obese children in the Bradford district than nationally. The problem is greatest in deprived families.

And the number of people across the district suffering from diabetes has jumped by 30 per cent in four years.

At Royal’s Balti Restaurant and Fast Food in Great Horton Road, kebabs are sold in large sizes only in all but one flavour.

When asked whether their portions were too large, takeaway worker Abbas Ahmed said: “It’s the right size.”

He said people could have smaller portions if they asked for them.

He said: “Sometimes people want a small portion and sometimes they ask for a large kebab.”

And when asked whether the takeaway offered healthy options, he said: “A lot of people ask for chicken, and we do the best chicken in Bradford. With chicken, there’s a lot of protein inside, so it’s healthy. It’s not fatty, it’s low fat.

“Sometimes people ask for vegetables as well.”

The new Bradford District Food Strategy also sets its sights on reducing the many tonnes of edible food that ends up in landfill.

Coun Thornton said: “An example of this is our recycling roadshows, which in the coming weeks will be handing out free recipe cards with ideas to reduce the amount of food thrown away.

“Food waste accounts for a significant proportion of household waste.

“Nationally, local authorities collect 4.6 million tonnes of food and drink waste every year that had an equivalent retail value of £7.5 billion and costs millions more to dispose of.

“Cutting down on food waste means families can save on the grocery bills and benefit the environment too.”

Coun Thornton said many tonnes of fruit and vegetables being sent to landfill by businesses in the Bradford district could soon be donated to foodbanks or given to community groups.

The strategy will also encourage people to grow their own vegetables and think more about where their food comes from.

And a report, being presented to the Regeneration and Economy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Thursday also reveals that a new website has been created, bwhatyoueat.org.uk, to act as a one-stop-shop for food advice.