A New Restaurant

New York Cities Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently passed a law that would require chain restaurants to post nutritional information on their menus and menu boards.  Although a federal appeals court overturned the law, saying it conflicted with existing federal regulations on nutritional disclosure, it’s still something that is a concern for restaurant owners.  There are currently 14 other states that are considering similar legislation.

Here’s the rub; the law was enacted against restaurant chains that already make nutritional information available to their customers.  Many of the major restaurant chains have nutritional information available in brochures and posters in their restaurants, but NY felt that the information should be displayed more prominently.  The law basically said, if you don’t provide any nutritional info, this law doesn’t apply to you.

Opponents of the law argued that the legislation not only singled those restaurant chains out, but that it was also an infringement on their first Amendment right to free speech.

Some restaurant chains are more than willing to comply.  Subway has already rolled out their new menu boards with calorie information listed, but Subway has been marketing the lower calorie benefits for years, so this isn’t anything new for them.  For other restaurant, this law was seen as costly and unnecessary.

Many chain restaurant owners feel that the law is not only invasive in their businesses, but that is impractical to try to list that much information on menu boards.  That much information on a menu board would only make it more difficult for customers to read.

So far, the laws have only been targeting chain restaurants because they have nutritional information more readily available, but once that door is opened it will only be a matter of time before other restaurants will be required to provide similar information.