Two days ahead of a vote scheduled in the House, the administration announced its opposition to a “common sense” menu labeling bill sponsored by the fourth-ranking Republican leader, Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In a statement, the administration said HR 2017 would “create consumer confusion by introducing a great deal of variability into how calories are declared” and delay the implementation of menu labeling. Americans get one-third of their calories away from home.
The FDA finalized rules in 2014 for listing calories on the menus of chain restaurants and other food retailers, and on vending machines. FDA has set Dec. 1 for compliance with the rule.
McMorris Rodgers says her bill “gives restaurants, grocers and convenience stores the freedom to provide nutrition information in a way consistent with how they operate and how their customers actually place orders – including by phone, online or through mobile apps.” Some businesses could post calorie information on a website instead of on-site. The bill also extends the deadline for compliance.
The consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest said HR 2017 “simply allows them (businesses) to make up their own serving sizes” and “create a loophole that would allow restaurants and other food service establishments to withhold the total number of servings for an item.”