United States to Require Calorie Count, Even at Movies

The Food and Drug Administration will announce sweeping rules Tuesday that will require chain restaurants, movie theaters and pizza parlors across the country to post calorie counts on their menus. Health experts said the new requirements would help combat the country's obesity epidemic by showing Americans just how many calories lurk in their favorite foods.The rules will have broad implications for public health. As much as a third of the calories that Americans consume come from outside the home, and many health experts believe that increasingly large portion sizes and unhealthy ingredients have been significant contributors to U.S. obesity."This is one of the most important public health nutrition policies ever to be passed nationally," said Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Right now, you are totally guessing at what you are getting. This rule will change that."The rules are far broader than consumer health advocates had expected, covering food in vending machines and amusement parks, as well as certain prepared foods in supermarkets. They apply to food establishments with 20 or more outlets, including fast-food chains like KFC and Subway and sit-down restaurants like Applebee's and The Cheesecake Factory.Perhaps the most surprising element of the new rules was the inclusion of alcoholic beverages, which had not been part of an earlier proposal. Beverages served in food establishments that are on menus and menu boards will be included, but a mixed drink at a bar will not, FDA officials said."It's much tougher than the original," said Marion Nestle, a professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. "I'm amazed. It never occurred to me that alcohol would make it in." The new rules will take effect a year from now and seem likely to face legal and political challenges from some parts of the food industry, including grocery and convenience stores that sell prepared foods for takeout.Menu labeling became law in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, and the FDA issued a proposal for how it should be implemented the following year. But the final rules were delayed for three years, in part because of opposition from pizza and movie theater chains.The release of the rules just weeks after the midterm elections prompted some advocates to suggest that politics might help explain the rules' timing and toughness. The administration backed away from covering movie theaters in 2011, the year before the last presidential election, when the Obama administration was keen to avoid giving Republicans ammunition for the charge that it was too quick to impose unnecessary and costly regulations.The rules apply to prepared foods sold in groceries and convenience stores that are intended to feed one person, such as a sandwich or a salad, but not to items like loaves of bread or a rotisserie chicken.The FDA allowed journalists to view an abbreviated description of the rules, but they will not be published officially until Tuesday, and most industry groups had yet to see the details.
Trade associations like the National Automatic Merchandising Association, which represents vending machine operators, said they could not comment on the new rules without seeing them.The National Grocers Association said: "Grocery stores are not chain restaurants, which is why Congress did not initially include them in the law. We are disappointed that the FDA's final rules will capture grocery stores, and impose such a large and costly regulatory burden on our members."Daren Bakst, a research fellow in agricultural policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the rule amounted to "a shocking power grab that ignored the plain language of the law." He said the FDA interpreted the law too broadly, arguing that it was supposed to apply only to restaurants, and similar establishments. "If Congress wanted to cover any establishment that sells prepared foods, they would have said that," he said. "No reasonable person is about to confuse a grocery store, convenience store or movie theater with a restaurant."New York became a kind of natural experiment when it began requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus in 2006. Many other cities, counties and states followed with their own rules, prompting the National Restaurant Association to throw its lot in with the consumer health advocates in an attempt to get a federal standard instead of contending with a patchwork. According to Wootan, about 18 states and cities have menu-labeling regulations in effect.Advocates praised the rules as a strong public education tool, but whether menu labeling has any effect on obesity and health is still an open question. Some studies have shown no effect, while others found one. A 2008 study of 100 million cash register transactions at Starbucks found a 6 percent decrease in average calories purchased after calorie posting. "You'll need more time out there in the real world with this to see if it works," said Kelly Brownell, a professor of public policy at Duke University.Dawn Sweeney, the National Restaurant Association's chief executive, said it had joined forces with more than 70 public health groups to "advocate for a federal nutrition standard so that anyone dining out can have clear, easy-to-use nutrition information at the point of ordering - information that is presented in the same way, no matter what part of the country."
A handful of restaurants, most prominently Panera, McDonald's and Au Bon Pain, already list calorie counts on their menu boards nationally. But segments of the food industry have continued to fight the regulations. The big pizza chains, for example, wanted the right to determine a serving size of pizza themselves and to list calories by the slice - and they got it. Determining the rules on calorie counts for pizza was apparently one of the thorniest issues the FDA faced. Advocates worried that if pizza restaurants were allowed to provide calories per slice, they would divide pizzas into more slices, and pizza companies stewed over how they could calculate calories for a food that is often customized by consumers.Vending machine owners lobbied to be excluded from the regulations, as did the convenience and grocery store associations. The FDA is giving vending machine owners an extra year to comply with the labeling regulations. The agency is requiring that vending machine operators provide calorie counts on stickers or placards near the specific food being sold or the selection button for it.© 2014 New York Times News Service