The Importance of Menu Labeling

by Kelly Brownell

Several states are considering legislation to require calorie labeling on restaurant menus. This follows on the heels of action by the New York City Department of Health to take trans fats out of all restaurants and to require calorie labeling in restaurants that have the information already available (the chains for the most part – about 10% of all restaurants).

I believe that such legislation is warranted on several grounds. First is that so many meals are eaten outside the home that the absence of calorie information is a factor in a great deal of American eating. Second is the consumer's right to know what they are eating. And third, the vast majority of Americans indicate in polls that they want the information.

But, the restaurant industry is fighting very hard against this. The reasons, and whether the reasons make sense, are discussed in an OpEd I recently wrote. Click here to download.

Comments

[Shefaly]

Professor Brownell, thanks for your post. While the arguments for labelling are hard to argue with, I think that basing it on the *rights* of individuals to know is a slippery slope for a society. Where is the discussion about duties of individuals to balance this focus on rights?

Also the restaurant labelling initiatives assume uniformity of cooking procedures and materials used, which means it will be easier to do it for mass-produced (and in many cases, nutritionally dubious) foods such as those centrally made in places like McDonald's. In my US experiences, the problem is more to do with mom-and-pop businesses who cannot guarantee such mechanical uniformity. How does one address this information gap?

Thanks.

[Mara]

In Dr. Brownell's OpEd piece, he states that: "...only chains (10 or more outlets) are affected."If only chains are affected (TGIF, McDonalds and so forth), I do agree that it would be easy enough for them to provide the nutritional information. I can't see any problems with this, other than if the chains try to be sneaky by requiring people to *ask* for calorie information. I think the information should be readily available without seeking it out. For "mom-and-pop" type places (and other restaurants), I think providing such information would be a more difficult task, for the reasons Shefaly mentions.

[Mark]

We at CalorieLab collect nutritional data for hundreds of restaurants, including the top several hundred restaurant chains, but increasingly we are noticing that small chains and even single unit restaurants are releasing nutritional data. So it doesn't seem to be that difficult or expensive a thing to do if you have a mind to do it.

The main segments that are still holding back are the family dining and casual dining table service segments as well as the steak and barbecue segment, where many of the largest chains are still not disclosing nutritional information for menu items beyond a few light entrees.