SAN JOSE Calif. A Santa Clara County supervisor said she would ask the county health department to draft a rule requiring local branches of quick-service chains to post calorie information on their menu boards.
Details of the proposal have not yet been worked out, but county supervisor Liz Kniss initially wanted to pattern the rule after the menu-labeling proposal recently vetoed in California. That measure would mandate the inclusion of calorie information on the menus or menu boards of chains with at least 15 units in the state. A spokesman for Kniss said she wanted to get input from other members of the board about how best to proceed.
Kniss said she would ask Santa Clara County's health department next week to draft a regulation binding on local chain fast-food outlets. Providing consumers with more nutrition information at the point-of-sale would help in the battle against obesity, she said.
The activity in the area commonly known as the Silicon Valley comes weeks after California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a menu-labeling bill at the state level, calling the mandate "impractical." Instead, the governor has urged restaurant operators to provide the information voluntarily.
Santa Clara County, located south of the San Francisco Bay area, includes the cities of Palo Alto, San Jose, Los Altos and Gilroy.