FDA Issues Final Menu Labeling Guidance
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the publication of its final menu-labeling guidance for industry, A Labeling Guide for Restaurants and Retail Establishments Selling Away-From-Home Foods – Part II, effective in May 2017.
The agency announced the draft guidance in The Federal Register on Sept. 16, 2015.
The FDA said it intends to begin enforcing the menu labeling final rule one year from the date that it publishes the Notice of Availability (NOA) in The Federal Register. It said it expects to publish the NOA in early May 2016.
The guidance applies to restaurants and similar retail food establishments–including convenience stores–if they are part of a chain of 20 or more locations, doing business under the same name, offering for sale substantially the same menu items and offering for sale restaurant-type foods.
Generally, establishments that are covered by the rule must post calories for standard menu items on menus or menu boards or, for self-service items and foods on display, on signs adjacent to the items, said the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS). The establishment also will be required to provide additional written nutrition information to consumers upon request.
Critics of the rules say they do not take into account calorie variations due to customization and human error, among other issues.
NACS supports the Common Sense Nutrition Disclosure Act of 2015, introduced by Reps. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), to clarify and simplify costly and complex menu-labeling regulations.
“The FDA has done a disservice to convenience stores by willingly ignoring our industry’s interest in providing calorie information to consumers in a way that is actually helpful,” said Lyle Beckwith, NACS senior vice president of government relations at NACS. “Rather than take into account the practicality of our industry’s ability to comply with the law, the FDA has moved ahead with menu-labeling requirements designed for chain restaurants and not convenience-store foodservice programs.”
