Nutritional information laws
I am hot on the tail of a story and need some help tracking down a key fact. Is is US law for fast food type restaurants to make available nutritional information? I can’t find anything definite on the topic, so it may just be a de facto CYA move in the fast food industry. Logically though, it seems like something the feds would demand. If you know the answer and can back it up (FDA link?), you will be credited in the story if you wish.
I think this is a law, but that doesn’t account for the average employee who doesn’t know where the facts are kept or if there are facts available.
While there are a lot of good reasons why restaurants would want to make such information available, the only case in which they are required by law to do so is if they make a specific nutrient claim (e.g., “low sodium”, “reduced fat”) or health claim (e.g., “heart healthy”). If they do make such a claim, they must have proof that it is consistent with the legal definitions established under NLEA.
More information:
– http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/tpmenus.html
– http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/qatext2.html
– google for “nlea restaurant”
(Disclosure: My employer, ESHA Research, produces nutrition analysis and labeling software for the food industry. Furthermore, because I do not speak publicly for my employer, I do not feel a story credit is appropriate.)
Most places have the info on their website (e.g. McDonalds, Subway, Jack in the Box). I’m not sure why they would do this unless it was the law, as most of the time it does not reflect well on the company.
McDonald’s has “Vanilla Reduced Fat Ice Cream Cone”, Subway has items advertised as having “6 grams of fat or less”, and Jack in the Box has “Low-Fat Herb Mayo Sauce”, all of which are nutrient content claims. So that explains why nutritional information for some of the items is available.
As to why they provide nutritional information for most or all of their menus, I can only guess. They already have the data (for internal use in product formulation), so it’s not as though they have to do a lot of extra analysis work to make it available. Presumably enough people have asked them for the information that they think it’s good P.R. to do so.
I stumbled across some case-law from 2002 regarding McDonald’s and NLEA requirements. The part relevant to this discussion begins with, “[…] it is important to note that the NLEA exempts from any labeling requirements food that is served in restaurants.”