Hidden Health Care Clause: Menu Labels Go National

(March 22) -- While most Americans were wondering what health care reform might mean for their insurance premiums, businesses and taxes, a select few were scrambling to prepare for Section 2572 of the 2,000-page document. This clause will force chain restaurants and vending machines to post nutritional labels on their food.

The menu-labeling legislation is modeled after programs that New Yorkers and Californians have already become accustomed to. Restaurants with more than 20 locations will be required to display caloric and nutritional information for every menu offering, with the exception of daily specials.

The new federal rules will supersede those already set out by states or municipalities. It's a streamlining effort that's been embraced by the industry's leading magazine, Nation's Restaurant News, which called it "the one victory" the bill offers restaurant owners.

Overall, the restaurant industry is concerned about new regulations for part-time and seasonal workers, and the fees incurred by restaurant owners who don't insure full-time staffers. Under the new bill, owners would pay $2,000 for each staffer, after the first 30, that they don't insure.

"We are committed to reducing costs in the health care system and expanding health care coverage for the industry's workforce," Dawn Sweeney, president of the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement responding to the bill's passage. "However, we are extremely concerned that the health care bill that passed today will impose tremendous burdens on America's restaurants and hurt our industry's ability to create and sustain jobs."

Until just last year, menu-labeling efforts were met with ongoing resistance from restaurant owners and executives. But the NRA recently backed the idea of a federally mandated menu-labeling law because it would minimize piecemeal initiatives and potentially confusing differences between states.

"The only way to ensure consumers get the nutrition information they want and need is for the federal government to establish a uniform national nutrition standard that requires chain restaurants to provide consistent, detailed nutrition information in writing in their restaurants," said an NRA release issued last year.

Despite the additional cost of adding menu labels, not to mention fears about decreased sales, the prospect was starting to seem largely inevitable to most restaurant owners. In addition to California and New York, a handful of states and municipalities have passed or are considering menu-labeling rules.

But even if restaurant owners can now plan for the lesser of two evils, questions persist over whether menu labeling is even effective. A study out of New York City last year concluded that those exposed to menu labels ordered 106 fewer calories, but only 15 percent said they actually "used" the information when ordering.