new york city reintroduces calorie rule - digital menu boards

Ray riveraoct reports.
On the 25 th, in continuing the fight against obesity, the Bloomberg Government re-introduced a measure yesterday to force chain restaurants to display calorie information on menus or menu boards, last month, A federal judge has rejected a similar measure.
The new regulations will apply to all restaurants with 15 or more branches in the city or across the country.
Many chain stores, including McDonald's, Burger King and Starbucks, have already provided calorie information on their websites or on posters or pallet pads.
But health officials say customers rarely see this information before deciding to order.
The regulation requires the calorie count to be as significant as the price per menu item.
For many fast food restaurants, this means that this information will be added to the big logo behind the cash register that lists food and prices.
"The big picture is that New Yorkers don't have access to calorie information," said Dr. Thomas R.
City health commissioner Frieden.
"They want it very much.
Not everyone will use it, but a lot of people will use it and it changes their order when they use it, which should reduce obesity and diabetes.
"The new regulations will apply to about 10% of the city's 23,000 restaurants, roughly the same as the previous ones.
But, according to health officials, those foods that will fall under the new regulations make up about third of the food eaten outside the home here each year.
Most fast-food customers simply don't know how many calories they consume, they say.
A typical McDonald's lunch, which includes Big Mac, big fries and medium Coke, has about 1,320 calories, about 66% of the recommended daily calorie intake for adults.
A Burger King with cheese has 1,230 calories.
Dunkin' Donuts's Kreme Donuts in Boston contain 270 calories.
A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for November.
27. the health commission is expected to vote in January, and its approval is necessary to enact the measure. The 11-
The member committee is appointed by the mayor and headed by a doctor
Frieden, so may be approved.
The proposal will take effect on March 31, 2008.
Health officials say about 56% of adults in the city are obese or overweight.
In last December, the city became the first city in the country to try to implement menu labeling requirements for chain restaurants.
One of several health companies.
Related reforms, including the ban on smoking in public places
The fat in the restaurant's cooking won Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg praised the mayor of the nanny in some circles and in other circles.
This year, menu labeling bills have been introduced in about 20 states and regions, opposing strong lobbying by the catering industry. Dr.
Frieden said the new regulations comply with the request made by Judge Richard J.
Holwell, United States District Court, Manhattan
In its decision of September, the judge said that the previous rule was
The federal Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 removed it because the city rules only apply to chain stores that have voluntarily provided nutritional information to their customers in some way.
The federal act provides that restaurants are generally exempt from the mandatory labeling act applicable to packaged foods.
But the judge wrote that if a restaurant chooses to provide this information, the Act gives it "flexibility in the way and where it is provided ".
The advertising city has chosen to limit this provision to restaurants that have already disclosed calorie information in some way to ease the burden on restaurant owners.
But some in the industry believe that it punishes chain stores that try to do the right thing by voluntarily providing calorie information, while not touching other chains that don't.
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Some chain stores, including Wendy, White Castle and Quiznos, stopped providing calorie information to their New York City customers when considering how or whether to comply with the measure.
The judge's decision was a victory for the New York State Restaurant Association, which sued New York City for questioning the rule.
In his ruling, however, the judge provided a framework for the city to rewrite the rules in a manner that did not violate federal law.
For example, regulations that enforce requirements for all restaurants that "run 10 or more restaurants of the same name" do not pre-
He wrote.
The city strictly abides by this recommendation when adjusting its supervision.
Chuck Hunt, a spokesman for the group, said the restaurant association opposed the new proposal but had not yet decided whether another legal challenge would be launched.
"This is a case in which the government has imposed on the way businesses operate," he said . ".
"It is not a matter of preventing violations of the law, and for the same reason that we have said before, our opposition to this will continue.
"The Association stated that the regulation would damage individual franchisees who must pay for the revised menu board.
In court papers, the association also believes that posting calorie messages sends the wrong message to consumers: calories are the most important message to choose a healthy diet.
The association believes that, using posters, websites and other methods, restaurants can provide a wider range of pictures of the nutrition of dishes, including the total number of grams of fat, sugar and carbohydrates.
This spring, a Health Department survey found that only 3% of Domino's customers were John's father, taco Bell and other popular restaurants saw the calorie information provided by these chains on their website or elsewhere before ordering.
By contrast, about 31% of subway customers reported seeing calorie information, which was prominently posted next to the checkout counter at the time of the survey.
The study found that those who said they did consume about 634 calories, about 50 fewer than those who did not.
"We estimate that these areas will be covered with 100 million to 0. 4 billion meals per year in New York City," Dr. Frieden said.
"Even if only 10% or 20% of people change their behavior, it's big.
"A version of this article appears on page B1 of the New York edition with the title: re-introduce the calorie rule in New York City.
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