The nations new health care bill requires the inclusion of calorie counts on many American menus. Restaurants will not longer be able to hide the calorie content of items on their menus; and it will soon be difficult for consumers to ignore the overtly displayed calorie counts. The law will require more than 200,000 restaurants and fast food chains to include calorie counts on their menus, menu boards, and even at the drive-through menus. It will also apply to vending machines, especially the ones that do not have visible calories listed on the front of the packages. The new law applies to any restaurant with 20 or more locations.
Many restaurants currently post nutritional information in a location other than the point of sale where it is not readily available to consumers. The information is currently located on their website or a hamburger wrapper that is visible to the consumer only after the purchase has taken place. The hope for the new law, requiring visible information at the time of purchase, is that the consumers will process the calorie information as they are ordering and make healthier choices.
“The nutrition information is right on the menu or menu board next to the name of the menu item, rather than in a pamphlet or in a tiny print on a poster, so that consumers can see it when they are making ordering decisions,” says Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who wrote the provision.
Restaurants are struggling with facing many different regulations and legislation from cities and states. The author states that this requirement was added with the support of the restaurant industry and, according to Sue Hensley of the National Restaurant Association, “… will allow operators to better be able to provide the information [to customers].”
Some places including New York City, California, and Seattle have already established calorie counts. The law directs the Food and Drug Administration to create a new national standard for menu labeling that will replace the existing laws in a number of cities and states. The FDA will have a year to write the new rules.
Margo Wooten, Director of Nutrition Policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, spoke of the wide range of calorie counts possible for the same types of food and said this is “…one step in the fight against obesity.”
There are some concerns being raised surrounding the accuracy of the counts, whether consumers will notice the calorie counts, and whether they will make a considerable difference in the health of Americans.
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