The Food and Drug Administration is delaying menu labeling compliance a year, to May 7, 2018, for restaurants and retail food establishments, the agency said in a memo Monday.
The Department of Health and Human Services previously set a compliance date of May 5, 2017.
“We are taking this action to enable us to consider how we might further reduce the regulatory burden or increase flexibility while continuing to achieve our regulatory objectives, in keeping with the administration’s policies,” the department said.
The delay drew the concern of the National Restaurant Association.
Cicely Simpson, the NRA’s executive vice president of government affairs and policy, said industry group was “concerned with the impact of the delay in the implementation of the federal menu labeling law just days before the scheduled effective date.”
“This delay upends plans that have been in motion for years throughout the food industry,” Simpson said in a statement. “We will continue to strongly advocate on behalf of what is best for small businesses and American consumers.”
The Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing (NACS) and the National Grocers Association had requested the FDA intervene prior to the deadline. NACS last week had advised of the compliance deadline extension.
Menu labeling requirements were originally included in the Affordable Care Act, which was signed by former President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.
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