FDA proposal would require chain restaurants to display calorie information
Saturday, April 02, 2011
FDA proposal would require chain restaurants to display calorie
information
By: Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
Chain restaurants, convenience stores, concession stands and
vending machines would soon have to display calorie information for
the food products they sell under rules proposed Friday by the
Food and Drug Administration.
"We do see this as an important step in providing consumers with
information they can use in choosing healthy diets and fighting
obesity," Michael R. Taylor, deputy FDA commissioner for foods,
said in describing the nation's first federal menu-labeling
law.
The rules, required by Congress in a little-noticed provision of
the health-care reform law passed last year, are subject to a
public comment period before they are finalized and implemented in
2012, Taylor said.
A notable exception under the proposed rules are movie theaters,
which earn up to a third of their income from sales of popcorn and
other items at their concession stands. Movie theaters have lobbied
the FDA in recent months, saying they should not be subject to the
law because people go to theaters to see movies, not to eat
meals.
That means moviegoers at Regal Theaters, the country's largest
chain with 548 theaters, will not be confronted with the fact that
a medium tub of unbuttered popcorn can contain 1,200 calories,
according to a 2009 laboratory analysis ordered by the Center for
Science in the Public Interest. That's half the recommended total
daily caloric intake for a 45-year-old man.
Under the regulations, any restaurant with 20 or more locations
offering standard fare - including table-service establishments,
fast-food outlets, bakeries and coffee shops - would have to
disclose calories "clearly and prominently" on menus or menu
boards, including drive-through order stations. Other nutritional
information, such as sodium and fat content, would have to be
available upon request.
Vending machines would have to clearly display the calorie
counts for each item. The information must be in close proximity to
the machine so that consumers can see the calories as easily as the
price or selection button number, according to the FDA.
Food industry groups, which have been meeting with the FDA over
the past year and have anticipated the rules, said a federal law is
better than a patchwork of state and local regulations. Menu
labeling laws have been passed in 18 states and localities,
including Montgomery County, Md., California and New York City, and
some restaurant chains already voluntarily provide the
information.
Dawn Sweeney, president and chief executive of the National
Restaurant Association, said her organization supported the federal
law.
"From Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine, the new standard
will help chain restaurants provide the same type of nutrition
information to consumers in any part of the country," she said.
With fewer outlets to absorb the cost, small- and medium-size
chains may face the greatest burden of the new requirements as they
analyze their fare to determine calorie counts, reprint menus and
refashion menu boards.
In addition to movie theaters, the regulations would not apply
to bowling alleys, airplanes and other places where less than half
the floor space is devoted to food sales. But the rules would cover
a chain kiosk housed inside another business - a Starbucks inside a
bookstore, for example.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, which has pushed
for menu labeling for a decade, hailed the proposed rules but said
that theaters and alcoholic beverages should have been
included.
"If a movie theater is going to serve up thousand-calorie tubs
of popcorn, 400-calorie drinks and 400-calorie boxes of candy, the
least they could do is tell you about it," said Margo Wootan,
nutrition policy director for the group.
Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), who authored a separate bill
requiring menu labeling, said Friday that she would "work to ensure
that the final rule is strengthened" to include movie theaters and
alcoholic beverages.
Patrick Corcoran, a spokesman for the National Association of
Theatre Owners, a trade group, declined to comment Friday.
When Congress passed the health-care law, it stipulated that the
labeling requirements should apply to restaurants and "similar
retail food establishments."
But in a nation where ready-to-eat food is seemingly everywhere
- from refrigerated "grab and go" cases in drugstores to pizza
franchises inside gas stations - the FDA has found it tricky to
define "food establishment," Taylor said.
And in restaurants where diners can customize their orders -
deciding whether to add cheese or guacamole, or both, to a burrito,
for instance - it's difficult to display specific calorie counts.
As a result, the FDA says restaurants can post a range of calories
for items that are customized. "In a pizza situation, where you can
have 20 different toppings, we're allowing those calories to be
declared in ranges," Taylor said.
In supermarkets, all packaged foods have carried a "Nutrition
Facts" label since 1990, allowing shoppers to quickly assess such
information as calories, sodium and fat. But the same information
has not been available at many restaurants, convenience stores and
other places where food is sold.
"For people who are interested or curious, this will be
staggering information," said Marion Nestle, who teaches nutrition,
food studies and public health at New York University. "And they'll
change their behavior. For others, it's not."