Nutrition Information in Chain Restaurants – Possible Reality?
Thu, 04/02/2009 - 16:42 — hope
An effort is underway with legislation, The Labeling and Education Act—LEAN Act—recently introduced in the U.S. Senate (S. 558) and House of Representatives (HR 1398), to require chain restaurants with more than 20 locations to provide Americans with detailed nutrition information, such as calories and grams of carbohydrate, fat, sodium and more. Both the National Restaurant Association and many large chain restaurants have come out in support of this legislation. This legislation is being promoted through the Coalition for Responsible Nutrition Information for which I’m serving as a spokesperson.
One reason the federal LEAN Act is being supported, perhaps surprisingly, by the restaurant association and large chains, is because local competing legislation is being introduced in more and more locations. Legislation has already been passed in several cities (New York, Seattle), states (California) and municipalities around the country. These pieces of legislation focus on providing calorie information and require the information to be on the menu board or menu itself. However, from locale to locale the regulations have differed. This makes implementation of these regulations a challenge for large national chain restaurants. By having one uniform national standard, chain restaurants will be able to efficiently disclose detailed nutrition information to their customers in every part of the country, instead of having to track a patchwork of different regulations that vary from place to place.
The LEAN Act provides several attributes:
If you support this legislation, let your Representative or Senators know via a phone call or e-mail. To learn more about this effort check out Coalition for Responsible Nutrition Information.
For those of us interested in eating healthier having the nutrition information accessible at the point of purchase will provide just the information we need to make healthier food choices. But it is well known that knowledge alone doesn’t change behavior and there are plenty of pitfalls in restaurant meals, from large portions, to the high fat and sodium counts. It's all too easy to veer off track. For help to eat healthier restaurant meals now check out my books Eat Out, Eat Right and Guide to Healthy Restaurant Eating.
One reason the federal LEAN Act is being supported, perhaps surprisingly, by the restaurant association and large chains, is because local competing legislation is being introduced in more and more locations. Legislation has already been passed in several cities (New York, Seattle), states (California) and municipalities around the country. These pieces of legislation focus on providing calorie information and require the information to be on the menu board or menu itself. However, from locale to locale the regulations have differed. This makes implementation of these regulations a challenge for large national chain restaurants. By having one uniform national standard, chain restaurants will be able to efficiently disclose detailed nutrition information to their customers in every part of the country, instead of having to track a patchwork of different regulations that vary from place to place.
The LEAN Act provides several attributes:
- LEAN requires chain restaurants to provide detailed nutrition information including calories and grams of other nutrients such as carbohydrate, fat, saturated fat and sodium—key nutrients to make decisions in restaurants about healthier food choices;
- LEAN would allow the chain restaurants to provide this information in the location that is most logical for the specific restaurant chain, from on the menu board, to the menu or a large poster.
- LEAN would pre-empt state and local legislation for nutrition information from chain restaurants making nutrition information consistent from coast to coast.
If you support this legislation, let your Representative or Senators know via a phone call or e-mail. To learn more about this effort check out Coalition for Responsible Nutrition Information.
For those of us interested in eating healthier having the nutrition information accessible at the point of purchase will provide just the information we need to make healthier food choices. But it is well known that knowledge alone doesn’t change behavior and there are plenty of pitfalls in restaurant meals, from large portions, to the high fat and sodium counts. It's all too easy to veer off track. For help to eat healthier restaurant meals now check out my books Eat Out, Eat Right and Guide to Healthy Restaurant Eating.
