Consumers are demanding more nutrition information. Legislators are mandating that operators provide it. And restaurants are forced to develop a workable solution by which they can operate effectively and still provide a good product and experience.
Amid the clamor of municipal, state and national proposals demanding that more nutrition information be posted in restaurants, a decent middle ground has emerged. California-based Healthy Dining and the National Restaurant Association in March officially unveiled the website HealthyDiningFinder.com to help Americans more easily identify nutritious choices. The website features nearly 30,000 restaurants, including Au Bon Pain, Buca di Beppo, Burger King, Chili’s and P.F. Chang’s.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta provided partial funding for the development of
“By making healthier food choices, Americans can help reduce the risk of obesity, cancer, diabetes and heart disease, which are all major health concerns,” said Michelle Reyes, an epidemiologist with the CDC. “
The expanding drive to force restaurants to post nutrition information led to a highly publicized dustup in February when Wendy’s and White Castle removed calorie counts from nutrition posters in their New York City outlets to avoid a March 1 deadline for posting the same information prominently on menu boards.
New York health department officials said actions taken by Wendy’s International would not exempt the chain from a new law requiring that its units in the city post calorie content information directly on menus and menu boards. Wendy’s removed calorie content information from nutrition posters at its outlets throughout the city’s five boroughs and posted a message on its website stating that calorie information was no longer available “to residents or customers in New York City” in an attempt to escape the city’s looming menu-labeling rules. White Castle, however, went a step further, eliminating all nutrition information available to consumers by pulling it from all 403 units nationwide and from its website entirely.
The actions by both Wendy’s and White Castle were taken in an attempt to avoid having to comply with a health department rule mandating that operators already offering calorie content information on the Internet, food wrappers, tray liners or in brochures must include it on menus and menu boards beginning July 1.
New York’s menu-labeling rules were passed in December together with the much-publicized ban on the sale of food containing trans fats in restaurants.
Jamie Richardson, director of marketing for Columbus, Ohio-based White Castle, said the chain had been planning to review its nutritional data and decided to remove it from posters and brochures in all of its 403 outlets nationwide and from its website before March 1. White Castle has 35 restaurants in New York City.
Richardson said White Castle wanted to retain as much flexibility as possible while it works toward a solution that is as customer-friendly as possible.
“We’re not offering nutritional information anywhere in the country,” Richardson said. “But [in the] long term, it’s not our intention not to share nutritional information with our customers.”
It is the confusion of such a patchwork of nutrition-labeling laws that poses a headache for national chain operators.
That is why such projects as
Sheila Weiss, director of nutrition policy for the National Restaurant Association, said the association’s research shows that nearly three out of four Americans say they are trying to eat more healthfully in restaurants than they did two years ago.
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Nicole Quartuccio, Healthy Dining’s director of nutrition, said the website “is an important resource, offering consumers thousands of healthful options available at restaurants across the country, along with corresponding nutrition information.”
The website allows consumers to narrow their searches by ZIP code, price range—under $10, $11 to $20, or $20 or more—as well as takeout, delivery and catering options. Visitors get a list of restaurants and then can click on a restaurant’s logo to view a full page of information about that restaurant, including nutrition profiles for its featured menu options.
Such private-public partnerships are a good start in clearing the fog and making nutritional information readily available to consumers without causing operators the headaches of dealing with many different laws.
