A federal rule that would mandate all chain restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores and other food sellers to post calorie counts on their menus has been delayed until 2018 after a last-minute reprieve from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The rule, which originally was proposed as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, was set to go into effect Friday. The FDA said Monday that the new deadline for all businesses that sell food and have 20 or more locations to post calories is May 7, 2018.
The labeling requirement has been heralded by public health advocates who say consumers who see calorie counts before buying food tend to order less calorie-laden options. But it had staunch critics who argued the rule didn’t allow for enough flexibility for food sellers that aren’t restaurants. It was fought by trade groups representing pizza restaurants, supermarkets, convenience stores and bakeries, which argued that the regulations needed to be adjusted to accommodate the many different ways in which Americans buy their food.
Menu labeling opponents had petitioned the Trump administration to delay the rule and pushed for passage of a bill called the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act, which would dilute and remove some of the regulations. The bill would allow for variable serving sizes and let food companies that do a majority of their business online, like pizza restaurants, post calories solely on their websites. It passed the House but has not gone to a vote in the Senate.
Domino’s Pizza and the trade group it formed to fight the regulations have for years argued that posting calorie counts on menu boards doesn’t make sense for businesses that have most of their sales through delivery. For Domino’s, about 90 percent of its orders are placed outside the store.
“We’re very pleased that our voices have been heard, but there is still more work to do,” Tim McIntyre, chairman of the Domino’s Pizza-backed American Pizza Community said in a statement.
Because the rule made it so close to the “compliance date,” many businesses already had spent the money to print new menu boards and get in compliance.
Several Chicago-area chains, from Portillo’s to Naf Naf Grill to Jewel-Osco, said last week that they were waiting until the deadline to do most of the heavy lifting. Others, like Jimmy John’s, had retrofitted old menus with calorie counts in recent days. David Sloan, co-CEO of Naf Naf Grill, which paid more than $17,000 for new menu boards, said the chain hasn’t decided whether it’s going to put the new boards up immediately despite the delay.
Estimates vary widely, but a single menu board can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,000, and the cost can swell depending on the size of the chain.
The FDA is opening the regulations to another public comment period starting Thursday. It asked in particular for “approaches to reduce regulatory burden or increase flexibility” for calorie postings on buffets and grab-and-go food stations, as well as recommendations on how to best provide calorie information outside of a menu board.
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