Jenny Craig can’t arrest you if you miscount your calories, but the federal government could if a new calorie-counting rule takes effect. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “Nutrition Labeling of Standard Menu Items in Restaurants and Similar Retail Food Establishments” (79 FR 71155) rule was originally scheduled to take effect on May 5. The FDA has now delayed the rule for a year.
The 105-page rule would implement Obama-era amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), which sets national standards for the marketing and labeling of food products. The rule would require, among other mandates, that all restaurants and other retail food outlets, such as movie theaters, operating as one brand with at least 20 stores display a calorie count in addition to other nutritional information for all standard menu items on the establishment’s “menus and menu boards.” FULL REPORT
